Follow TV Tropes

Following

Gush / Live-Action Films
aka: Film

Go To

Oh, my god! That is the greatest movie you've ever seen in your life!

Spoilers may lie ahead.


  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of the greatest Westerns ever made.
  • Man of Steel is by far the best Superman movie ever made. First of all, it did the impossible: Convinced me Superman was cool. I loved how it humanized Clark Kent and his powerset, and how that made him different from people while still sympathetic. I loved the movie long realization that because he has so much power, he has a responsibility to use it for good. Extremely inspiring, with an phenomenal soundtrack, incredible effects and perfect casting with Henry Cavill. If you can accept a slightly darker iteration of the Man of Tomorrow, you'll love this film.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the ORIGINAL movie) is so Oscar-worthy! It's such a faithful, yet innovative adaptation that it has to be held in such high regard! Not just as a great comic-book movie, but as a great movie in general. The main characters are superbly written, the story is tragic and shocking at times, and it has a gritty, mature and realistic tone to it. And the fight scenes were scenes of awesome, too! Did I mention that the creators of the source material hold this film in high regard as the greatest adaptation of their work?
  • The Amazing Spider-Man Series is one of the most underrated superhero adaptions ever, and arguably the best. The inclusion of Mechanical webshooters alone puts it on this list. Andrew Garfield owns the role, his chemistry with Emma Stone, a great supporting cast, lots of improvement in special effects technology over the previous franchise, and a Spider-Man that's actually funny.
  • The Mad Max trilogy. Even Thunderdome. The first is a great example of how much sheer awesomeness can be made from hardly any money. The way in which Max disposes of Johnny is both disturbing and essential to his character development. The second one is so action-packed and explosive, it is impossible not to love it. It also has a great soundtrack. Then comes Beyond Thunderdome, the logical conclusion of the trilogy. The fact that it is far Lighter and Softer than the previous entries in the series is not a bad thing, as it helps symbolise Max regaining his compassion and humanity. Plus, the bit where the children play the record about how to speak French was a Tear Jerker.
    • And now the newest one, Mad Max: Fury Road may be the single greatest achievement of any of them. In addition to having some of the greatest action ever put onscreen, featuring brilliant Practical Effects and stunts unlike anything else out there and a constant feeling of momentum, its simple yet effective story also features some of the finest Worldbuilding and character building of the 21st century. Adhering almost 100% to the rule of Show, Don't Tell, there is little dialogue and virtually zero exposition, and yet everything about the world and characters feels completely real simply through incredible visual storytelling and acting. For a movie with nearly two hours of almost nothing but action and chase scenes, it's ironically very subtle. And if those aren't enough, it's a got a blind guy strapped on a speeding truck with a massive amp system behind him, shredding on an electric guitar flamethrower. What's not to love?
  • In the decade of the 1930's, even the great city of Metropolis wasn't spared the ravages of the world-wide depression. In these times of fear and confusion, the Daily Planet, a great metropolitan newspaper whose reputation for honesty and truth, became a symbol of hope for the city of Metropolis...... Cue, John Williams Rousing Music and so begins the definitive, and greatest, Super Hero movie ever made. Up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane. No it's Superman. Thirty years later, they still can't top it.
    • ^^ Probably the most delightfully theatrical opening in film history.
  • Despite all the controversy, Borat was one of the funniest films ever made. Once you get past all the gratuitous "yagshamash" and see the film you will laugh your ass off.
  • No love for Amélie? This movie is my absolute favorite. I call it my "happy place" movie because even thinking about it lightens my mood. It's just a sweet romantic comedy with likeable characters and great humor. The fact that it's French carries a certain Disambiguation appeal to this Francophile.
  • It couldn't make me cry because I was smiling too hard. I couldn't make me laugh because I was fighting back tears. Life Is Beautiful is. It just made me happy; it made me realize that there are truly beautiful people in this world. If only in the minds that envisioned such a wonderful story.
  • I love Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs so very very much. The perfect blend of action—Did I say action? I mean violence—angst, and character development.
    • Seconded. It's also pretty funny and low-key despite the blood and the deaths, and surprisingly touching where Orange and White's comradeship is concerned.
  • For my money, there has never been a greater cinematic blend of comedy and theological philosophy than Kevin Smith's Dogma. On the comedic side, look no further than the Golgothan Shit Demon. Crass and crude? Perhaps. Hilarious? Not a strong enough word. For the serious side, just watch in awe at the heated argument between Bartleby and Loki in the parking lot. It's seriously one of the best performances of Afflecks career.
  • Is it full of more tropes than this very wiki? Yes? Is the acting campy sometimes? Yes? Does the story stretch, and in some cases, stomp on, logic? Yes? Is Independence Day also one of the most purely entertaining and fun movies in recent history? Hell yes!
    • And inspiring; the President's "this is Independence Day" speech? Oh boy, there aren't words for the shivers that went up my spine.
    • I spit at the notion that this movie is anything other than epic. I watch it yearly, and it never ceases to bring me to tears. I adore the characters, I love the action, I love the story, I'm in love with the soundtrack, and it has the best climax of any movie. Period. I have never been able to sit through the president's speech without buckling down into tears.
    • For me, the most marvelous thing about the movie is watching all of the world's foes coming together to fight the greater enemy. I can't see the scene where the Palestinians and the Israelis are sharing information, sharing a camp, without getting a shiver down my back. Please God, someday let it be so. (Ideally, without the threat of world devastation!)
  • People seem to take it entirely for granted, but Star Wars is actually pretty damned good. And weird. But also good.
    • Hell, the star wars movies are some of the only movies I've ever watched without feeling like I want to go do something else before it's over.
    • Totally. I love Star Wars.
    • OT love!
    • PT love too!
    • Lots of people will disagree with me, but... I love Jar Jar.
      • He's not as bad as people make him out to be. But for me, R2-D2 will always be the best.
      • This troper agrees. Poor guy just can't catch a break, in or out of universe.
    • Ep III love! Ian McDiarmid is made of villainous win.
      • Episode III is definitely a good movie and in my opinion had enough badassedness to paper over the Narm (which is less frequent anyway).
      • I am still livid that I let people's badmouthing stop me from seeing AOTC and ROTS in the cinema. Am I alone in my angstlove in crying solidly through about half of ROTS and shuddering with horror at Palps' creepy little ballet speech? I even, yes, um, think I like it more than... anyoftheotherfilms. Hem.
      • On the subject of ROTS, can I just mention how utterly brilliant the lightsaber duel on Mustafar is? From how ridiculously over the top the actual creation of the environment is, to the brilliance from both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, it actually tops the Luke vs. Vader duel in ROTJ in terms of raw emotion, and power conveyed, considering it's the Jedi equivalent of a brawl. Absolutely made the film for me.
    • Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is made of pure, sweet win. Every scene is beautifully done from music to acting to directing, the Leia/Han and Darth Vader scenes especially. Also, my respects to Mark Hamill for his awesome acting in the Yoda scenes, where he couldn't hear what Frank Oz was saying and had to act his lines to a mute puppet.
      • Empire is probably the best Star Wars film, far surpassing any of the prequels in terms of quality of dialogue and plot and cinematography and sound. But you shouldn't watch it over and over. It's really a once in a while thing.
    • This may be slightly over-the-top, but Darth Vaders Heroic Sacrifice in Episode 6 is pretty much the only thing that can even temporarily restore my faith in humanity.
    • Attack of the Clones is just simply the best out of all the films. We get to see Anakin grown up and facing down the challenges of coming of age, the galaxy is pushed to the brink of war, and that fight on Geonosis is just superb.
    • The Last Jedi took heat from fans who wanted to see the franchise go in a different direction, and thought it misinterpreted classic characters. I understand where they're coming from, but I thought it was a beautiful and expertly told story. The acting was fantastic across the board, the action scenes were gripping, and the message that people aren't heroes because of legends, bloodlines, and prophecies, but because they do the right thing restores a key theme to the franchise that has been missing for decades. As a lifelong fan, I always tear up during the scene between Luke and R2-D2.
  • After the Star Wars love I gotta talk about Star Trek. Particularly, Parts II, III, and IV, which are so awesome, people who despise Trek love them. James Horner's kickass music probably helps.
    • What about Star Trek (2009)? I know some really hardcore Star Trek: The Original Series fans didn't like it because it was accessible to everyone, but that's what I (and my two siblings) loved about it. It was fun and fast-paced with amazing CGI, but the acting was superb as well. Okay, I love Leonard Nimoy as much as the next Geek, but you've got to admit that Zachary Quinto's performance as Young Spock had a quiet intensity to it that made it probably the best performance in a Trek film to date.
      • No argument there. I enjoyed it, and I have an aunt who called herself one of the original Trekkers and gave the film a thumbs up.
      • I've never been a Trekkie and am so ignorant of and indifferent toward the Star Trek universe that I don't even know what Romulans are, yet I still liked the new Trek film so much I went to the theater to see it thrice.
      • Same with my parents, aunts, uncles, etc., all of whom grew up watching TOS. My mom had been initially skeptical when she saw the trailer, but absolutely loved the film when she saw it. I too grew up watching the various movies and TV series and have a rather embarrassing knowledge of Trek lore, and I adored it. (My mom and I both agree that Simon Pegg in particular nailed the role of Scotty, though everyone did a good job. My initial reaction upon first hearing the cast list was completely allayed when I actually saw the movie.)
  • The Star Trek (2009) movie rocks my world. The Enterprise is gorgeous, the humor works, the characterizations shine, the music is jawdroppingly awesome, and I think I'm in love with Uhura. If that isn't enough to convince you, well then.... "fencing".
    • Speaking of humour, I, who don't really like Star Trek, was sold the minute I saw that Simon Pegg was going to be in it (and it's an odd-numbered Star Trek film, heh).
      • On the other hand, its working title was Star Trek 0 and zero is even.
  • Hey, hey, hey, no love for First Contact, the movie which has always given the Wrath of Khan a run for its money for the title of best Star Trek movie ever? After the lackluster Generations, Ronald D. Moore and Paramount gave us one hell of a movie as an apology, which ticked so many boxes of approval.
    • A story that is rooted solely in the TNG era and its characters? Check. A well thought out script? Check. A movie that is thematically rich and intellectually provoking, like any good Star Trek story? Check. A story that moves along organically without feeling rushed or contrived? Check. A movie that has enough of awesome action, combat (whether personal or ship-to-ship) and visual effects to satisfy the rest of the audience? Check. Making a movie that is enjoyable to those unfamiliar with the franchise? Check. A dangerous villain? Check. Worf being badass? Check. Enough humour to smooth the journey? Check. Character Development? Check. Sticking to continuity? Check. Adding something new to the Trek mythos? Check. Check. Check
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's far from your average romantic comedy — the two leads are messed-up, and just about every other supporting character is too — yet it's surprisingly and realistically heartwarming and optimistic in spite of its highly flawed characters, which appealed to the likes-happy-endings-done-right-True Art Is Angsty-be-damned romantic in me. Plus, the mind/dream scenes are wonderfully imaginative and the underlying messages about the importance of memories in one's life, even the painful ones, are thought-provoking without being Anvilicious. It's a lovely film that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it deserves.
    • And the filmmakers didn't get enough props for great film techniques (forced perspective, interesting camera angles, mis-en-scene, and so on), in an era of over the top CGI special effects and spectacle over storytelling.
  • Michel Gondry... just, Michel Gondry. Give The Science of Sleep another chance. The Science of Sleep is AWESOME. Gondry mindfuckery at its best.
    • Add one more troper to the count — it is one of the finest science fiction movies I have seen, indeed, one of the finest movies simpliciter. Jim Carrey once again proves the Tom Hanks Syndrome playing Joel, and Kate Winslet is no less impressive as Clementine. Fantastic script, fantastic acting, fantastic direction ... it's just good.
  • Little Shop of Horrors. In my opinion, it is the perfect movie.
  • Starship Troopers. It's the film version of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja — if it isn't under Rule of Cool, it's under Rule of Funny, with kickass CG. What's not to love?
  • I like High School Musical, it's my goofy Guilty Pleasure! There, I said it. Feel free to get out your torches and pitch forks, now.
    • Pitchforks? Torches? Nay, at most we'll throw a coconut covered cupcake your way and then hand you a napkin.
    • It kind of helps that Troy seems to be getting buffer these days. Oh whatever, everyone knows he's one of the main reasons the movies are so popular. And I don't mind that at all.
    • I have this, er, 'friend' who is in no way a pre-pubescent girl but still saw the third movie in the cinema three times. Ahem.
    • I would hereby like to say I was entirely skeptical the first time I saw this movie to its quality, and must confess that it lead to me crying during movie for the first time in six years. The Charm, The Music, Troy and Gabbi, this is a movie I'll never back down from.
    • For me, it's the soundtrack. Say what you will about the plot and characters, but the songs are not coming off this iPod.
    • ...I cried at the end of the second one. And I didn't even see the whole thing! It must have been the song; the soundtracks for these and other Disney Channel stuff are what you would call my guilty pleasure music.
  • Terminator. Arnold is a great robot from the future, the action scenes are awesomeness, and it's just entertaining. The sequel's even better, with an interesting plot, even better action, the guy who invented Skynet, and I just want to give Arnold a hug in that one. Ok, maybe I can't describe why I like it that well, it's just a very good, well plotted action movie with a great villain and an even better sequel.
    • The first Terminator is one of the most atmosphere-drenched masterpieces in the history of fiction. Second one's great too. But let's end it there, shall we?
    • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Okay, let's be real here: T3 is definitely inferior to the first two films, but it deserves serious credit for that Twist Ending. It could have easily been just a very vanilla action movie and a pointless retread of the second film, with them stopping Skynet again, but it turns out...no. They can't. In one of the boldest and most haunting twists I've seen for a movie like this, the world actually ends and John accepts his duty as leader of the human resistance.
  • Primer is one of the best Time Travel stories I've ever read or seen. No mucking about with Hollywood History, just impenetrable geek-talk and a plot that gets confusing as crap once people start changing the past. Which is exactly what it would be like if time travel were invented for real.
    • Seconded. Practically the only model of time travel that makes any sense, and they both invented it and pulled off both making the plot suitably incomprehensible while still allowing the viewer to determine what went on on genius levels.
  • Speaking of Kung Pow, Kung Pow! I can't think of a single scene in it without at least one very quotable line. "I really like the band **NSYNC...my favourite member is Harpo. Is there a Harpo in *NSYNC? If not, there should be..."
  • The Three Stooges are the greatest comic trio in recorded history. Moe Howard, the intellectual's Stooge, could act. Watch "You Natzy Spy!" and The Great Dictator back to back if you want to see Moe Howard out act Charlie Chaplin playing the same character. Curly Howard, the funniest Stooge, played one of the most unique characters in film history. He was a torrent of tics and running gags that never failed to entertain and never felt forced. And then there's Larry Fine, the film lover's Stooge. Larry rarely did anything but react - because he is the greatest re-actor in history. Just try to make some of the faces Larry had, and you will curse God for depriving you of the Fine face muscles (pun intended). The creativity of the films were awesome. How they kept coming up with such incredible gags for years astounds me. Sometimes there would be so many gags in a short that the plot would become completely abstracted, yet it was never difficult to follow. It was never difficult because the slapstick came from character. When someone got hit or someone hit someone, there was an underlying "logic" of comedy that informed every movement. I could go on for pages. So I will sum up: it is not possible to be greater than The Three Stooges, and being declared their equals is the highest of praise.
  • Superman Returns. It takes everything that made Richard Donner's Superman great and then just adds and adds and adds onto it.
    • But did he have to basically turn down the gamma on the costume?
      • ...I'm going to take that as a positive, because all you have to complain about is that the costume isn't quite right.
  • The Riddick series is, in my opinion, one of the best example of pulp sci-fi films out there. Badass anti-hero with memorable lines and a great supporting cast, no matter which movie, running the gamut from Claudia Black and Keith David to big names like Judi Dench, it's managed to still be good, not only when changing genres from horror to epic fantasy action, but even when changing mediums, from live action to animation and video games. A very underrated series, and Vin's best work.
    • Definitely. Perhaps not amazingly deep, but definitely good fun, good atmosphere (Pitch Black is, at times, truly pitch black), and even fairly interesting characters.
    • The game was so great, that years later when it was rereleased it was still great. Pitch Black was a great action movie, and Riddick is one of the most awesome characters ever in it. The Anime bridge between the movies just got better from there. The Chronicles of Riddick never happened, though.
      • I even loved the sequel, i know it's got 'alot' of hate and for the most part I can understand given how different the second was to the first at times. But i really liked the odd design, style and Necromongers concept. I'm alone in this opinion among my friends and we usually like the same films.
  • Conan the Barbarian (1982). Even with all its heavy right-wingedness, it's an incredibly powerful movie - every monologue (and there are plenty of monologues) is played so beautifully and so hypnotically that it commands your attention the entire time and never lets it go.
  • Bond. James Bond.
    • Daniel Craig is the most badass of all six Bonds.
    • And Roger Moore is the funniest. Say what you will about him, but I have never left a Roger Moore Bond film without a big grin on my face.
      • Except for For Your Eyes Only. That one is one of the most suspenseful Bond films and among the ones to feel the most like a spy film. Even people who hate Moore liked not only that one, but he proved to be well-cast in it.
    • Sean Connery. Probably the most suave badass to ever live with a cool factor of 110.
    • Even though those movies are all excellent, the best Bond film in my mind was On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Certainly not a popular choice on my part, the film is nonetheless my favorite Bond movie by far. It's also the closest adaptation of the bunch, sticking to Ian Fleming's novel from the explosive beginning, to the absolutely heartwrenching ending. It's just as much a Shakespearean tragedy as it is an action film. It also has the most well-developed female character in the series (with only the possible exception of Casino Royale (2006)'s Vesper). Just watch it; Lazenby is actually pretty good as Bond.
      • Lazenby is great. The vast majority of those who hate him haven't even seen On Her Majesty's, and just assume he was bad because he only did one movie (when in reality he was badly advised by his agent). He did an admirable job, especially when following such a tough act as Sean.
    • Timothy Dalton seldom gets the respect he deserves for being Bond. People found him too dark, but he was coming in after 12 years of Roger Moore. Licence to Kill is probably the most underrated movie in the entire franchise, even more so since it plays out like Craig's Bond movies thus far.
    • We've got to mention Pierce Brosnan at least once. GoldenEye in particular was pretty awesome, and while his later films might not have been up to scratch, this Bond basically revived the franchise and brought into the post-Cold War era while still maintaining relevance. Also, GoldenEye features one of the only Bond girls who could legitimately be called a Deuteragonist alongside Bond.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was one of the best films of 2003. Johnny Depp was robbed at the Academy Awards.
    • But what about At World's End? I'll admit there's a bunch of plot holes in there if you don't bother to do research about the missing scenes, but I love it nonetheless because it gave us the best on-screen wedding ever.
    • The visuals are EPIC WIN.
    • I'm virtually alone in this, but I think Dead Man's Chest is even better than Curse of the Black Pearl: it's such a dizzyingly fast-paced romp that throws in so much awesome it's impossible to make sense of. I think my main beef with At World's End was that it did try and make a coherent storyline out of the second movie rather than just expand on the first and second. Case in point? Black Pearl had werewolf skeleton pirates. Dead Man's Chest had sea-creature pirates. At World's End should have had: bird pirates.
      • Seconded on, er, the second. They took everything that worked in the first film and distilled it. Or subverted it.
      • No offence to any fans of Clash of the Titans, but Liam Neeson could take a few lessons from Davy Jones on how to REALLY release a Kraken!
    • And as long as we're on the subject of Bill Nighy and Johnny Depp, Nighy is WICKED AWESOME and Depp is my favorite actor of ALL TIME. He almost never gives a boring performance, he deftly—perfectly—balances professionalism and whimsy, and he is so good he can make the craziest schemes (like drawing inspiration from Keith Richards and Pepe Le Pew to play a pirate) work SPECTACULARLY.
  • Scary Movie 3 is almost as good as Airplane!, damnit. All the other movie-movies suck (well, I admit Scary Movie 1 was hilariously bad), but SM3 is just plain good. The script is great, the actors do great jobs and except for the 8 Mile parody, the jokes worked. Please see this one part of the series before declaring it beyond redemption.
    • Speaking of Airplane! - I saw it for the first time after having known every joke in it for years. I'd actually performed in a ripoff of the "What's our vector, Victor?" bit. And I still laughed myself sick.
    • As for the first Scary Movie, I legitimately enjoyed it (probably because I like the Wayans Brothers, yes, even their WB Sitcom). The second one wasn't very amusing to me.
    • The opening to Scary Movie 2 is one of the funniest bits ever recorded.
  • Back to the Future is truly a classic film. Just the fact that a sci-fi teen comedy got an Oscar nomination for its writing says a lot about its quality. It's also been added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress and made it onto IMDb's "Top 250" list. (Out of Africa, the winner of Best Picture that year, has yet to receive either honor. Just saying.) The sequels are also good, but don't measure up to this gem.
    • I'll say. My sister and I watched it so often that our dad half-joked that we were going to wear out the videotape.
    • That's what DVD is for. The whole series is just ultra-win. It's the only film before or since that has actually had a Timey-Wimey Ball make sense. And if the theme doesn't grab you, you're deaf.
    • I never saw the Back to the Future movies when I was younger or as I grew and my friend recently made me watch the movies. I have no idea what I've done in my life before finally seeing them. They are just fantastic.
      • Ditto. Last year, my teacher was talking about that oh-so fake rumour that Justin Bieber was going to be playing the main character in a remake of the movies. When I mentioned that I'd never seen them, all I heard was gasps and cries of: "YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BACK TO THE FUTURE?!?!" Couple of months later, I saw that it was going to be on TV and taped it - then watched it with my mother. It was love at first viewing. Cue me realising that it was my perfect movie, buying the trilogy on DVD, and also finding them amazing - oh, and getting a huge crush on Marty McFly.
  • Casablanca, anyone? The acting, story, and songs are amazing, and if Seltzerberg makes a "Classic Movie" that rips off Casablanca, they'd probably do this:
    • Make "As Time Goes By" a rap number (since Sam is African American) with lots of swearing, pop culture "references", and have some celebrity we don't care a lick about have a make-out session with Sam. I shudder at the thought of it. Someone needs to stop them. Let's see what I have: Three mallets, a rifle, a bow and arrow set, and a few katanas. Get your weapons, rendezvous, and stop them forever! I declare myself general. Anywho, while we're planning La Resistance, let's list a few other awful changes they would make to this movie. I started you guys off. Go! Oh, SWEET! I found a power ring!
    • The cafe is now a strip joint, Ilsa's a hooker, Renault has a menage a trois with Yvonne and Annina, and I'd like my turn with the power ring, please. (I brought the stakes to go with the mallets.)
  • The Indiana Jones movies are uniformly awesome. They are the perfect movie trilogy, and the best thing George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford have ever done (and I include Star Wars there). And the only reason I leave the fourth one out is because I haven't actually had the time to get around to seeing it.
    • Damn right. Raiders is a genuine classic, Temple of Doom is darkly hilarious and really damn scary sometimes, and The Last Crusade is pretty much my favourite movie ever.
    • Uniformly great. Yes, even the fourth one, which really NEEDS MORE LOVE—although I concede it's not as good as the other three.
  • The American Godzilla movie kicks ass. It's funny, has good computer animation and a romantic subplot that isn't half as annoying as the ones in most disaster/action movies. Maybe my liking is because I've never seen one of the Japanese Godzilla movies, but I believe that just gives me the ability to view this film objectively.
    • Seconded. It isn't a world beater but it is damn entertaining all the same.
    • Thirded. And this one is from a fan of the original Godzilla films. "Zilla" may not live up to Godzilla Classic, but it was still a pretty fun film. Plus, it had Jean Reno as a badass French commando. That alone is a lot of awesome points right there. It only got better with the Animated Adaptation, Godzilla: The Series, where Godzilla Jr. acted far closer to Godzilla Classic.
  • Hot Fuzz just gets better and better every time I see it. Hilarious, with many lampshades hung in the best possible way that just makes it even more badass.
    • The cast! Cate Blanchett (eyes and voice only!), Peter Jackson (ho! ho! ho! * stab* ), Timothy Dalton...
    • It should be studied in screenwriting classes. For the greater good. ("SHUT IT!")
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey took storytelling itself to a whole new level, and is the single most impressive accomplishment in the history of special effects, still holding up flawlessly in their realism despite being made in nineteen-sixty-fucking-eight!
  • Kingpin is bar-none, the funniest movie I have ever seen barring Caddyshack.
  • Just about everything Jim Henson put his hands on is gold, but I gotta give love to two of the coolest fantasy movies ever, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Gorgeous visuals, unique creatures, and just plain fun to watch. Bonus points to the latter for the use of an extremely bishy David Bowie.
  • No, really, Labyrinth deserves its own entry. Music = top notch! 14-year-old Jennifer Connelly? (Playing 15-year-old Sarah, no Dawson Casting here.) Amazing! UST with a rock star-style Fae King who is doing everything for you?...heh A chivalrous fox-knight with a loud mouth and ego? Truly, Jim Henson has ascended to the realms of the gods.
    • To paraphrase the ending, every now and again in your life, if you come to love this movie, you still need it.
  • Peter Sellers had to fight to get Being There made...and was it worth it! For all of Sellers' flaws as a person, it's hard to believe that the man who played Chance the Gardener didn't have some good in him. It helps that everyone else in front of and behind the cameras was on top of their game - why can't new-millennium comedies be this gorgeously photographed?
  • Woody Allen had lots of great films in the 70s, but Annie Hall is just in a class by itself. It's one of those movies that gets better and better with age, with some of the best dialogue and wit ever written for the screen. It rings so true like very few movies do about love and relationships that it's final scenes always make me tear up even though it's hardly a Tear Jerker... it just feels like it gets everything right. It's also just plain laugh out loud funny. Now I gotta watch it again... la di da, la di da...
    • Anyone who agrees with Bill Maher that people only pretend to find Woody Allen funny out of pretentiousness, I challenge them to watch Annie Hall without bursting out—several times—into helpless peals of quite involuntary laughter themselves!
  • Monty Python's Life of Brian is the most hilarious movie I've ever seen. You haven't lived until you've watched the stoning scene. Or heard about what the Romans have done for their poor, oppressed, suffering people. Or met Biggus Dickus. Or learned how you can become an instant Messiah without even trying. Or discovered that even a very funny movie can contain some pretty good social commentary without detracting in any way from the laughs.
    • Seconded. People may quote Holy Grail until the cows come home, but Life of Brian is THE best Python movie, period.
    • My personal favourite is The Meaning Of Life. Solely because it doesn't suffer from the over-quotation problem at all, unlike Grail and Brian... Oh, and the hilarious jokes, awesome acting and good music help a lot.
    • Okay, fine. Holy Grail gets quoted a bit more than is really necessary. There's a reason for that, dammit! I still remember when I first saw it and am fairly certain that nothing has ever made me laugh harder in my entire life. Every second there's another joke. Without a doubt it is one of the greatest comedies of all time.
    • Let's just leave it simply that the Python films are all great, including Live at the Hollywood Bowl. If you don't find the sketch from Meaning of Life with John Cleese as the Grim Reaper drop dead hysterical, you are officially not a human being.
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show isn't just So Bad, It's Good. It's actually one of the best 1970s musicals period, with cool characters and songs that kept fans coming back for more to the point the whole Audience Participation element emerged. As giddy as the full AP showings still are, it deserves to be appreciated on its own merits. (And the semi-sequel Shock Treatment is underrated - the songs are just as much fun and even a bit wittier than the original's.)
    • Second! It really is fun to just watch on its own (though the AP midnight shows are certainly a treat) My obsession with it may ebb and flow but it will always have a place in my heart.
  • Phantom of the Paradise is utterly fabulous. Combining a 6'4" masked madman in a bondage outfit (complete with with synthesized voice and metal teeth), clever and catchy parodies of popular music genres from doo-wop to heavy metal, a gorgeous contralto singer, a villain based on Phil Spector, a belt made of antlers, off-the-wall dialoque ("I know drug-real from real-real!"), caustic satirisation of the entertainment world, a proto-goth show where band members mock carving up the audience, and a man with a record logo melted into his face, you'll never see another film like it and everybody should see it at least once (or twice, in my opinion). It is also a favourite film of/source of inspiration to Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright, Daft Punk, Marilyn Manson and the cities of Paris, France and Winnipeg, Canada.
    • Phantom is criminally underappreciated — it's like a Gothic horror story (obviously), a cheesy Seventies musical, and a great comedy all mashed together into one incredibly enjoyable movie.
  • Pan's Labyrinth is gorgeously deep, and I'm not usually one to use "deep" as a qualitative statement. And as for Mercedes - pure awesome.
    • Most things made by Guillermo del Toro really, save for a few bad seeds here and there (and even those are arguably still quite good to watch, like the second Hellboy movie)
    • And now we can add the ridiculously awesome Pacific Rim to the list of fantastic films that Mr. Del Toro has made. Cinematography that actually keeps the scale of the monsters in mind. Kaiju that are cool instead of just scary. And, most of all, the movie is just plain old fun. Even though the story and characters are cliched, everything in the film, including said cliches, just works. Everything works as a mad mismash of everything that makes both Kaiju and Mecha absolutely great.
  • I have to say...whatever its flaws, and I'm sure people will list plenty, the film version The Da Vinci Code is made of utter win for two reasons: A) Ian McKellen, and B) The Crowning Music Of Awesome at the film's end. That is all.
    • This.
    • My grandmother sent me a copy of this one, I have to say it never lets up on the thrills and spills. Everyone has their own moments and no one falls flat (Figuratively anyhow, I don't recall if anyone does literally :)).
  • The purists can complain all they want, but that doesn't stop the V for Vendetta movie from being made of win and one of my favorite films.
    • FUCK the purists. V for Vendetta is so made of win that it may as well have its own spot on the periodic table of elements ("victorium").
    • Hell yeah, I was just astonished with the film when I saw it the first time... The terrorist/freedom-fighter. The fireworks. The TV show of Gordon. And the soundtrack... Well, for example, "Out Of Sight" by Spirituality and "The Long Black Train" by Richard Hawley (you know the tune on Insp. Eric Finch's alarm clock?) are now on my regular playlist!
  • I managed to avoid the hype for months, I have little faith in sequels, and only after I saw the last trailer and later noted the rave reviews was I interested in seeing The Dark Knight. I joined the crowds that Friday opening night, but was still expecting just a good superhero film. I wound up seeing the movie a total of nine times in theatres, reading classic Batman comics for the first time just to explore the filmmakers' inspirations, and becoming a Heath Ledger fan. Sensational.
    • The Dark Knight is a masterpiece. The soundtrack, the characters, the setting, the contrasting moralities, it's simply brilliant. You know what? The movie deserves to be hyped. Period.
    • The Dark Knight trailer has the most effective use of Never Trust a Trailer I have ever seen. Here... we... go!
    • God, I love that movie. I have no doubt that if it wasn't for Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, it wouldn't have been such a awesome movie.
    • Not to leave out Batman Begins! I want to get a sex change so that I can have both of these movies' lovechildren.
    • I find it to be an absolute shame that Batman Returns is so constantly overlooked. After not watching it in years, I picked up my copy about a year ago and popped it in. And I have to say that The Dark Knight is the only live action Batman movie that is better than this one. Michelle Pfieffer's performance as Catwoman ALONE makes the movie ridiculously good. But add to that a truly tragic story of the Penguin, along with a hammy bastard villain played by Christopher Walken, and the always awesome Michael Keaton as Batman, and you've got probably one of the darkest, most satisfying tragedies this side of the cowl.
    • Batman '89 is my standard by which all comic book movies are judged. Everything about it from the the acting to the gorgeous style, to the Joker's murderously funny dialogue make this not just a great comic movie, but one of the greatest movies of all time. I actually prefers it to The Dark Knight for feeling more like a "Batman" movie. So what if doesn't strive for realism? Its source materiel isn't very realistic either! Finally, let's not forget, because of it and Batman Returns, we got Batman: The Animated Series, the greatest animated show of all time.
    • I was hesitant to see The Dark Knight, loving the 1989 Batman by Tim Burton. Still couldn't help but check it out and I loved it just as much. I concur also Batman Returns is also amazing in its own right.
    • Say what you will about the campier elements, I still maintain that Batman Forever had a great character arc for Bruce Wayne, and it even helped me swallow Batman casually murdering Penguin's henchmen in the last movie. Yes, I seriously think Joel Schumauker did a better job with Batman's character than Tim freakin' Burton. And Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones were hilarious.
  • Two tragically underrated movies, both just as good as their book versions, both written by William Goldman, both beginning with the letters "Ma", and two of my all-time favorites: Marathon Man, and Magic. The former is one of the most confusing (yet not distractingly so) thrillers I can think of, rife with historical subtext and dark suspense. The latter is a simple but chilling mix of dementia and romance. These are the films that likely pushed me to the state of cinemaphilia I thrive in now :) .
  • How can you have a Sugar Wiki without Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory? The songs are lovely, the characters are endearing and/or hilarious, the script has some of the best Parental Bonus / Serious Business humor around...and that's all before you get to the factory itself. Then it proceeds to take all that to the next level and adds Scenery Porn, scary scenes, and a heartwarming finale, with Gene Wilder's amazing performance as Wonka bringing it all together.
    • And Tim Burton's version managed to be an Alternate Interpretation of the story that didn't suck, mainly because it wasn't intended to be a remake and was more true to the book. Yeah, they took a few liberties with Wonka, but I personally prefer this movie's ending where Wonka realizes the importance of family.
  • Hopefully, in a couple of decades from now, The Descent is going to be regarded as a horror classic. It's got a group of realistic, totally badass characters, great character development, the boring set and lack of budget didn't prevent them doing some great cinematography almost completely via beautiful lighting — I have a real thing for good lighting, btw — and it's so scary some people just won't go in a cave anymore after seeing it. To make it that little bit more frightening, according to my science teacher the basic concept of the crawlers [tribe of cavemen who stayed in that cave and evolved] is sound, so there's a possibility they could actually exist somewhere. How cool is that?
  • Danny the Dog was way, way better than it had to be. It could have been a generic, reasonably well-done beat-'em-up, but every action-movie trope was infused with meaning. I hadn't thought of Jet Li as having impressive acting chops before this, but wow.
  • Hedwig and the Angry Inch is easily one of the best film musicals ever (the stage show being awesome as well), and hell one of the few dramatic film musicals that really gets it right. Full of Fridge Brilliance that makes it better and better each time I watch it, and the songs are amazing and pure awesome on their own. It's truly deserves to be recognized not just as a cult classic but as a brilliant piece of film making.
  • I don't care what anyone says, Napoleon Dynamite is frikkin hilarious. Yes, there's no real plot, and it did get quoted to death, but there are still so many gut bustingly hilarious moments. It's one of the best examples of the humor of the pathetic and mundane, such that I lost count how many times I rewound the scene where the tape says "Welcome to D-Kwon's Dance Grooves! Are you ready to get your groove on?" and Napoleon responds "Yes"
  • Iron Man isn't on the list yet? Aw, c'mon! My favorite comic book adaptation yet. It has its own page on Crowning Moment O Awesome for a reason.
    • You can't even list the reasons why that movie rocks—it just does. They did an amazing job with it.
    • My 4 year old sister loves Iron Man and the first two Spider-Man Trilogy movies. I loved them as well. She also loves the Fantastic Four Movies and the Hulk, I just love superhero movies.
    • My boyfriend told me to shut up about it after we saw it together. Just so, so awesome. Words cannot convey my love for that movie. "Yeah, I can fly."
    • And the sequel is oodles of fun too. One thing that makes these films so good is their cheerful down-to-earthiness — who says you have to be Darker and Edgier to be realistic and serious-minded? From Pepper Potts discovering the icky downside of changing Tony's arc reactor to his bantering with his robot helpers, from his appearance before the Senate subcommittee hitting YouTube to the weaselly antics of Justin Hammer, from an inspired take on Mr. Alt Disney to a doughnut binge, the films are as memorable for their small moments as their crash-and-bash action.
    • Agreed, it always saddens me when people bash the sequel. I love it inordinately for paying so much attention to its source material. Watching it captures everything I love about reading a comic and I consider it the most comic-booky film I've ever seen. The cast are all excellent and it embraces the inherent silliness of the comic medium without also abandoning realism. You think synthesisng a new element in your basement is impossible? Not to Tony Stark.
  • There's a film in German set before the fall of the Berlin Wall called The Lives of Others. It was good. It was very good. A strict Stasi officer bugging an artist's home slowly warms and becomes an actual human being. What a Bittersweet Ending.
    • Apparently, the guy who played the Stasi officer lived a lot of it.
    • Good? Very good? It's a frigging masterpiece, one of the best films I've ever seen. Making an article for it right now.
  • The Big Lebowski is the greatest comedy ever. Everything about it is perfect: the acting, the writing, the music, the cinematography, everything. I can watch it a bunch of times, and never get tired of it.
    • Try watching it and tell me something in the film you disliked. I cannot find a single shot, a single second and let alone a single scene I disliked. The film is just fantastic from start to end. Everything is memorable. Just hearing a sentence from that film makes me warm inside, it's great.
  • The collective movies of Werner Herzog are so great that it is almost painful. From the triumph of the human spirit that is Fitzcarraldo and to the self-destruction of Woyzeck or Aguirre, the Wrath of God. His version of Nosferatu is the best straight adaptation of Dracula ever made. His fairly recent documentary, Grizzly Man, is just the beginning of some mainstream success and Thank God! I'll be able to drag the non-believers into his beautiful world yet!
  • The 13th Warrior is a movie that does Demythification right in an incredibly awesome way. A Spaniard pretending to be an Arab joins some Vikings to fight cavemen, and it's an adaptation of Beowulf. Much better than that more recent, really damned mediocre effort of a movie.
  • The X-Men film basically started the modern trend of comic movies done right. And, dude, could they have picked anyone better for Professor X than Patrick Stewart?
    • The second one is my favorite. You can't get any better than exploding police cars.
    • Not to mention Nightcrawler. Plus, nobody can do a better Wolverine than Hugh Jackman. Nobody.
    • The later prequel, X-Men: First Class, might at times seem just like a fun adventure romp about the very beginnings of the team in the early 1960s, but it strikes a surprisingly good balance between being a genuine human drama and an upbeat superhero film. It's also an installment that genuinely cares for the complexities faced by humanity in the setting, normal humans and mutants alike, rather than painting the whole thing as a fairly black-and-white issue, with easily drawn "battle lines" between prejudice and reasoned views. Bravo. For a film superficially about the younger versions of the comic book characters, it takes on a lot of stuff and it succeeds very admirably... A talented but emotionally troubled Beast (my personal favourite X-Man ever) gets more development in this installment than any before or since, Moira MacTaggert is the somewhat shy but influential glue that helps bring and keep the early team together, Professor X tries to make sense of the whole struggle and where his protéges fit in it and what they should stand for, and we see Magneto's development as a man struggling with the demons of his past with help from his newly found friends, only to eventually succumb to the overwhelming temptation of his lust for vengeance. Great stuff, some of it very moving and chilling. For me, the greatest take away from the story are the Professor's words on "being the better man" - instead of wanting to be a better human by searching for superiority based on something physical or on personal pride, he appeals to being a better human in spirit, based on one's ethics and responsibility towards others. Professor X himself is a complex man, not without flaws and anxieties, and even though this appeal of his fails to sway Magneto and a few other mutants from creating an ideological schism and parting ways with him, the remaining original X-Men still manage to save the day and prove the Professor right. Pettiness and obsession with vengeance is wrong and it makes the divisions between humans even worse, regardless of them being ordinary or superpowered. The scene where Magneto gruesomely kills the now-helpless antagonist, after his friend's continued and desperate pleas to "be the better man" and show the villain mercy fall on deaf ears, is equal parts unsettling and touching. Unsettling for how easily even an intelligent and justified man like Magneto can fall for a blind Pay Evil unto Evil mindset and touching because of Professor X's dogged, heartfelt protesting of such insane, needless violence. Even after Magneto and the proto-Brotherhood leave, Professor X and his remaining followers keep up hope that they'll be able to help protect humanity from conflict and foster understanding, instead of division and exclusion. Despite all the sad stuff that happened, you can't but admire them. About the only disappointment for me was the death of Darwin, who was a charming presence on the team and could have shown so much potential in any of the sequels. Seriously, Darwin was awesome, he shouldn't have been so underused.
  • OK, yes, Manos: The Hands of Fate is one of the worst movies ever made. But you know what? The underlying plot isn't all that bad. And the ending is legitimately creepy. Not surprisingly creepy. Actually creepy. I would totally watch a modern re-make, taken seriously, starring legit actors.
    • Thank you! I have said the exact same thing that you said to my mom and sister, and they both don't agree. I am proud to own a DVD copy of the film, and I have watched the film at least thrice. Torgo has to be one of the greatest tragic villains, or heroes, considering that Mike is a total jerk. I really feel bad for Torgo. He was just a normal man, who was forced into a life of service to a despotic master. When I see Torgo rubbing on Debbie, I know it's creepy, but at the same time, I feel bad, because The Master won't let Torgo have a wife, and life without love is truly tragic. Poor guy... ends up dying in a very... vague manner.
  • Take with it what you will, but besides The Lord of the Rings movies, I found the Chronicles Of Narnia movies stunning. Sure, the second movie has a fair number of Narmy moments, and the romance was unnecessary, but it was still beautiful. In both, besides the fact that Aslan is a Crystal Dragon Jesus, the special effects are gorgeous, the acting is not as wooden as everyone likes to pretend it is (what, was Peter supposed to sob when he killed the wolf?), and the scenery is fantastic. It also helps that they stayed 90% true to LWW, making some changes for the better.
    • Seconded. It is one of the best adaptations in terms of keeping true to the best bits of the book and changing the less-than-great parts. VDT in particular made great changes from the book. And the acting (considering they're kids) is pretty damn good.
  • Don't shoot me or anything, but I quite enjoyed the Twilight movie more than I expected to. Not only do the director and writer cut out all the unnecessary Wangsting and constant talk of how beautiful the vampires are, but they seemed to make the movie their own. A fluffy representation, if that's really what the books are anyways. Legions of fans may be pissed, but you can't make a movie exactly the way the fans want it.
    • Don't be ashamed, I adore Twilight, although less as a substantial film and more as an easy-to-mock masterpiece of cheese and absurdity. And it is still a significant improvement on the book in terms of, well, cheese and absurdity.
  • Somewhat similar to above, but not really, Warm Bodies! That movie was just great! Sure, it may have had its flaws, but I didn't see them, and the characters were just too great! It was so easy to feel bad for R and relate to him, and ahhhh that movie was so awesome!!
  • "Jodhaa Akbar". Four and a half hours of subtitles and totally, totally worth it.
  • Across the Universe (2007) is a fantastic film in so many ways. In particular, the music and accompanying sequences. And the ending, which could have been something entirely different considering the historical context, but instead went down a route that seemed really quite fitting with the overall feel of the Beatles.
  • The 1993 version of The Secret Garden is not only an excellent adaptation of the book, but it stands - and beautifully, at that - on its own. The cinematography and sets are Gothic, and stunningly, austerely perfect. The child actors are real and not in the least bit cutesified in their portrayals, and more than anything the entire thing weaves together a combination of heartbreaking loneliness and the healing power of love and friendship. It's a genuinely heartwarming movie, with plenty of emotional and downright terrifying moments sprinkled through the narrative. While it has a few flaws, it's still an amazing movie and by far the best movie version out there.
  • I'm a yankee doodle dandy- yankee doodle do or die! I haven't even seen the movie, but I can not stop watching the dancing on YouTube. James Cagney is the man.
  • I love Edward Scissorhands. Such a beautiful film.
    • Seconded. The final ten minutes, in particular, are achingly grand.
    • Anything by Tim Burton. He really puts heart into his movies, it's like watching the beauty of his little world through a window.
      • ^^ Ditto. It's become so trendy now to bash Burton. Welcome to die, bashers!
  • The Prestige. Victorian times! Stage magicians! Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale being hot! I guess I may be biased because I'm so keen on, err, the above, but even without those, you have the intricate, clever plot, with at least one twist at the end that's really amazing, if the other one is a little bit dodgy. The perfect kind of twist, because when you watch the film a second (or third, or fourth, or... seventh) time, it really does change the way you see certain events. Oh, and Michael Caine and David Bowie reminding us all why old people are AWESOME.
    • Seconded so heartily. I cried at that big reveal, because it was the first time in my life that I hadn't a single clue that a twist was coming.
    • Old? Nah, man; the word is experienced.
    • While I'm kinda biased because of the male leads Twin. Christian. Bales.)(, it really was a fantastic movie. Christopher Nolan proves once again how amazing he is. <3
    • I can't agree more, I adore how this film unashamedly shifts genres and twists its characters into such fascinating, but tragic people. Watching it a second time really made me appreciate how well the twist really works and I would be lying if I said I didn't find Olivia captivating to the point where I missed some things first time round.
    • It truly boggles me that The Prestige doesn't get more love. I mean, you've got Batman, Wolverine, David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, Gollum, Black Widow, AND Michael Caine all in Gorgeous Period Dress doing magic. And badass lightning effects. Add that to a narrative so layered it makes Inception look positively flat, gorgeous visuals and truly heartbreaking acting (seriously, any idiots who say that Nolan's films are "cold" needs to sit their ass down and watch the third act) and you've got, fittingly enough, cinematic magic.
    • Supported. This movie is my favorite of Nolan's, which is saying a lot since that guy's director portfolio has no bad movie as far as I'm concerned.
  • I am again showing my true colours as a blatant fanboy (and feeling slight guilt in the process), but no Alien or Aliens? The former belongs in the canon of great horror films, and the second is the awesomest action film ever made, and Ellen Ripley is the first and awesomest Action Girl to appear on the screen...
  • If you remember the fall of the Berlin Wall (or if you're just a history nut), Goodbye Lenin is utterly hysterical. Hunting down the old generic groceries in a sea of shiny new imports, all the people who "go away on vacation" - can I just say that, after years of hearing that phrase used as an indication that someone's either abandoned their child or been taken to a death camp, it is so nice to hear it used in a pleasant context?
  • Velvet Goldmine is the single most beautiful movie I have ever seen. The cinematography, set design, costumes, makeup, actors, post-production, soundtrack, dialogue, everything. Watching it is a freaking experience.
  • Magnolia is for me the best movie ever made. It's like a plot that is impossible to describe, and it's a challenging 3 hours, but the plot, the characters, the acting, everything makes it more than worthy of watching the movie. Tom Cruise's best role ever.
    Respect the cock! Tame the cunt!
    • Most people have not heard of Magnolia, but most people have heard of Boogie Nights, also made by Paul Thomas Anderson. Boogie Nights is a great movie, Magnolia is greater.
  • Office Space. The minutes after he has his fears and worries hypnotized aways are some of the greatest and most inspirational of any movie I have seen.
  • Blades of Glory. There's some pretty hilarious dialogue in there and great throw away lines, a gem among the category it's in of usually "stupid" comedies. It makes Jon Heder and Will Ferrell look so pretty - I've never been able to watch a movie so many times!
  • The Spider-Man movies. Being one of our main demographic, no superhero had ever been so relatable, and any movie with such long times without any action as Spider-Man 2 that still kept my attention is to be commended.
  • Serenity managed to take a pitifully short run on TV to the big screen without alienating fans or scaring away new ones while being pure awesome with the coolest soundtrack I've heard in a while and having one of the most engaging plots I have ever encountered. And Serenity introduced her to the world of Firefly.
    • As someone who was a fan of the show from the beginning, before the movie came out, I wholehearted concur!
    • River Tam's fight scenes in that movie need special mention for being simultaneously beautiful, elegant, graceful, and incredibly badass. You can really see the dance training in there, and it's awesome.
  • I can't ever recall being more emotionally involved in a movie than I was when I first saw Into the Wild. Just the whole thing is fantastic on so many levels and they managed to make a true story so cathartic and so meaningful and they hardly could have picked a better story to do it with. Bravo.
  • Ed Wood. Possibly Tim Burton's greatest work. About one of the worst directors ever. But made using such love and admiration for the So Bad, It's Good quality of them. Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi is fantastic, with everything from him getting mad at a fan and delivering the super hammy lines to when he checks himself into rehab.
  • Both The Godfather and Apocalypse Now seems to be rather obvious choices, but there is a reason they are among the Top #250 of IMDB, The Godfather being second. It is just THAT good.
    • Not just on IMDB. Both the American Film Institute and the magazine Sight & Sound rated it second (after Citizen Kane). When I saw it the first time, I was stunned. After seeing the film, I just felt amazed by it.
  • Any other Robert Altman fans out there in Troperland? When asked what my favorite movie is, after some struggling, I've found that my answer is McCabe & Mrs. Miller. A genius deconstruction of The Western (which I'll admit is a genre I have a weird attachment to) that is beautifully filmed in an unpretentious way... plus, Leonard Cohen!
  • It's the second dumbest comedy movie ever, but in an absolutely fantastic way. Ladies and gentlemen, Bill S. Preston, Esquire, and Ted 'Theodore' Logan!
    • EXCELLENT!! * Air Guitar*
    • I wholeheartedly agree, and would like to add that I loved the sequel just as much, because it is the absolute best parody of The Seventh Seal I have ever seen. "Um... best two out of three."
      • I love the sequel SO MUCH MORE than the first one! It's faster, it's funnier, and THAT ENDING SONG with the montage about Bill and Ted making the world a better place? Admit it, you were waving a pretend lighter and cheering in your living room. I know I was.
  • Not sure how this page got this far without mention of the 80's classic Ghostbusters, what with the awesome backpack, cool car, and great acting by Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and yes, Ernie Hudson as well and by the supporting cast as well, and of course, the earworm of a theme.
  • For something that gets so much hate, Doomsday was the most entertaining two hours I've had all year. I don't give a shite that it's derivative, that was kind of the point, and I love its random shifts in setting, from furistic dystopian England to punk city to a medieval castle. I love how much work was put into the details of each society, I love that they use prosthetics instead of CGI, I love its bloody, gritty, dirty style, I love that it favours hand-to-hand combat over guns, I love how realistic they made beating up a huge guy in full plate armour, I love the off-the-wall insane car chase, and most of all, I love the cannibal humour. Doomsday stole my heart with cannibalism, y'all!
    • Seconded so goddamn much. My friend and I stumbles upon Doomsday one afternoon when there was nothing else on TV. Round about when we got to the cannibal stripper poledancing musical number scene, my buddy declared, "this is the best worst movie ever!"
  • Mulholland Dr. is (along with Eraserhead) the ultimate Lynch movie. I won't bother trying to describe it. From the terror behind Winkies, to one of the funniest botched assassination scenes ever filmed, to really hot lesbians, this film has it all!
    • I (who created the MD page in the first place) could go on for ages about how I love Mulholland Dr. . . . Masterpiece. Genius. A work of art that's simply Naomi Twattselicious!
    • Don't even get me started on how much I love Lynch....
  • The Princess Bride is not up here? Inconceivable!
    • I was just rallying herself for such a proclamation. A film as wonderful as this deserves more love!
    • Best. Sword fight. EVER.
    • AND one of the top ten most quotable films of all time.... with some real wisdom imparted as well: "There's not a lot of money in revenge" is the prime example.
  • Dead Poets Society. "Oh Captain my Captain." Enough said.
    • It made me want to be a teacher. That film was moving in every way.
  • Man on the Moon, the Andy Kaufman Biopic, is a career high point for Jim Carrey. Yes, a lot of it recreates material from Kaufman's stage/TV acts, but also carefully supplies the context they unfolded in and makes it clear just how much he risked, lost, and gained in both his professional and personal life. It's a tearjerker, it's hilarious, the music's great, it can make people Kaufman fans — and Carrey is magnificent.
  • If I could, then I would gladly make love to Withnail and I. The lines are still hilarious, no matter how many times they get quoted, the characters are all so lovingly played that they become sympathetic, the leitmotif of "Withnail's Theme" is gorgeous and the ending is just one big Tear Jerker.
  • Fight Club. Visceral, raw, subversive, darkly funny, and pun intended, packs a helluva punch when it ends. Easily David Fincher's best work and one of Brad Pitt's best performances to date.
    • Not to mention how it's probably the best example of how to do intrusive narration correctly. I talked to some friends about it, and they agreed that the movie would suck without Edward Norton as the Deadpan Snarker.
      • Best of all, it doesn't pander to it's audience. It doesn't wait for you to catch up, or slowly explain things so that you can understand. It refuses to be anything less than brilliant, and it practically forces you to watch it again. Out of the dozens of times I've seen it, it never gets old, and it's my favorite film.
    • More than any other film based on a book that I've seen it feels like a book brought to life, mostly from the unspeakably well written and literary voice-over narration. Hot damn I love this movie!
  • Red Dragon, the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, is the best-made thriller ever. The suspence, the drama, the characters, everything about it is top notch. Not only does it live up to the expectations SotL set up, but it surpasses them.
    • It's in some ways better than The Silence of the Lambs. Take a moment to let the enormity of that sink in....
  • No matter how many times I see it, I still find myself holding my breath during the last ten minutes of Wargames.
  • Speed Racer is about twenty different kinds of awesome, and is completely underrated. Anyone who dislikes it is obviously thinking about it way too hard and can't just sit back and enjoy the ride.
    • Ohhhh yes, Speed Racer is delicious candy. With John Goodman beating up ninjas and honestly exhilirating race scenes.
    • The Wachowskis talked about how they would run home from school to watch the cartoon. The movie is one big thank you and love letter to the series.
    • To put this in perspective to people wondering why Speed Racer is awesome, lets put it this way: At the end of the final race Speed's card has its tires dripping tar onto the race track, due to how fast he drove during the last part of the race. Let me repeat that, the TIRES are MELTING from the speed.
  • Glory will leave you speechless. It's that good a movie. Nay, it's that good and experience.
  • Stand by Me has to be one of the best nostalgia coming-of-age films ever. It was funny and heartfelt... but managed to avoid any sugary sweetness and sentimentality, presented the 50's in an honest kind of way, never said anything about growing up being bad, and had very natural-acting actors. And Kiefer Sutherland is supremely creepy.
  • Of all the movies I like, The Blues Brothers has to be the one that is the most fun. If fun were an element, this movie would be on the Periodic Table.
    • Zee women, how much for zee women?
  • And as long as we're on John Landis, An American Werewolf in London is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the best werewolf film of all time. There aren't even any close contenders.
  • Alfred Hitchcock. North By Northwest is damn near perfect. Cary Grant manages to make bewilderment look suave, Eva Marie Saint is foxiness on legs, and James Mason is a mirror-smooth, snarkalicious Big Bad. And don't even get me started on the music, the cropduster, the drunken joyride, or Mount Rushmore...
    • Rear Window is, so far as I know, the *pinnacle* of suspenseful cinematic pacing.
  • The Shawshank Redemption: Beautifully written, adapted, acted and narrated. You will never care so much about a bunch of jailbirds by the end of this film. It's rare to cry at a moment in a movie when no character on-screen is crying, but... "Brooks was here." And the music, oh God! After they dropped the anvil on my head, I took it off and lovingly caressed it while I fell asleep that night.
  • The Green Mile. Beautiful, simply beautiful.
  • Jaws. It made so many people afraid to go swimming without showing more than some fins for over an hour and a half, and it happened all by one of the most fortunate accidents in film history. The Indianapolis speech is probably the single best example of verbal storytelling in any movie.
  • And speaking of Spielberg's work, Jurassic Park. That CGI is amazing, the raptors are genuinely frightening(because there are places you can hide from a T-rex, but raptors can learn to open the door to your shelter and then walk through the door and disembowel you), and the end makes you want to punch the air and cheer.
    • Jurassic Park is the high point of special effects. Animatronics brushed up with CGI create dinosaurs that actually look like they are about to climb off the screen, something all the CGI-fests made in the last 15 years have failed to do.
    • Agreed. I don't care what people say about Jaws, Indiana Jones, or Schindler's List. They're all great movies but Jurassic Park is, to me, Spielberg's highest achievement. It helps that it's the first live action movie I ever watched. I also don't really care for the cries of sequelitis; I truly like all of the sequels, specially Jurassic World, one of two movies I've watched more than thrice in theaters.
    • Jurassic Park also has one of the best acting ensembles assembled for a Spielberg film; it's easy to forget that the dino attacks don't start up until the halfway point because their interactions are so interesting. Not to mention all that quotable dialogue!
  • The Seven Samurai : It's Akira Kurosawa, folks. There's a good reason everything he's ever made has been ripped off again and again.
    • It's four hours long and is engaging, emotional, intense, and funny the entire way. Crowning Movie of Awesome.
    • Watch that then watch The Magnificent Seven for good measure. (the movie anyway) It was the first rip off. Slightly less awesome fights, but it's easily made up with Eli Wallach as Calvera. Does he seem like a nerdy Jew from New York to you? For that matter, why do you love the villain so much?
  • John Wick Hands down the best action movie I have ever seen, a title previously held by Die Hard. The use of lighting, camera techniques, and the overall cinematography creates a perfect environment for Keanu Reeves'' do awesome action stuff in! The Red Circle club scene is a masterpiece of cool visuals and pounding electronic music. is I'm also partial to classic American muscle cars, so that helps too.
  • Yojimbo: Another repeatedly copied Akira Kurosawa film. You probably saw it as A Fist Full of Dollars. Only the hero brings a sword to a gunfight and wins!
  • Shoot 'Em Up. A party of mayhem and violence that cannot be topped.
    • Not even by Doomsday and Crank: High Voltage?
    • Shoot 'Em Up is another So Bad, It's Good movie. When the movie opens with a man delivering a baby with one hand while killing dozens of men with a gun in the other, you know you're in for a bit of a cheese-fest. As long as you go into it knowing it's going to be completely unrealistic, this is actually a pretty good movie.
    • Does it count if it's all intentional?
  • Dark City. But be sure to watch the director's cut, Executive Meddling gutted what makes it so great.
  • Last Action Hero was and is underrated. It's a wonderful sendup of Action movie tropes and cliches, and a lot of the film is prime fodder for subject matter for books on determinism, fatalism, Free Will and all of that.
  • Anything directed by Wong Kar-Wai. Anything. Be it Chungking Express or Fallen Angels or In the Mood for Love or Happy Together or Days of Being Wild or even Ashes of Time. His films are all so excellent, especially when combined with the cinematography of Christopher Doyle. His use of music is unmatched.
  • District 9:
    • It's one of the best, if not straight up THE best movie that it has ever been my pleasure to view. I'm not even a sci-fi chick, normally. But this'n got me five times in the theater, and it's now the number one thing on my Christmas list. I love this movie and everything about it. The ending is fab. I've heard a lot of people complain about the ending. "It's too sad/ambiguous/downer/open etc." So what?! It's not a happy ending, no, but it's not necessarily a sad one. It's an ending, and a damn good one. What also gets me every time is the thought that it's Sharlto Copley's first-ever serious acting gig. You'd never know it at first glance. The man's amazing, and I see a bright future for him on the silver screen (and he's not too hard on the eyes, either!). Guh.
    • The effects were so well-done I stopped seeing them as effects after a few minutes. The alien weapons were right; whoever designed them put together the perfect mix of unearthly sci-fi-ness and gritty realism. The action sequences in the last third were a gorgeous payoff to all of the character development in the first part... and it had interesting things to say about the What Measure Is a Non-Cute? and Mighty Whitey tropes.
  • Oh my god I love The Fifth Element so much. It's Questing, World-Saving cliche in the best way, it uses Used Future to its fullest, it's wild and out there but not without human grounding, Leeloo is a badass, Korben and Ruby are funny as all get out, Gary Oldman delivers a ridiculous but appropriate over-the-top performance, and the worldbuilding is wildly innovative. And if that all doesn't sell you, it's ludicrously quotable.
    • My favorite "sit back and enjoy the ride" movie. Chris Tucker's Ruby would annoy me to no end in any other movie, but he's perfect here. It became even more impressive when I went looking for the book or comic it came from and found that it's an original; the universe is detailed enough that it feels like it must come from deeper source material.
  • No Country for Old Men is stubbornly staying in my "Favorite Movie of All Time" slot. I don't know what it is, but between the performances (Javier Bardem so deserved that Oscar, I'm sorry), the setting (gohgous landscapes), and the characters, she can't help but watch the darn thing over and over and over again. It's art, pure and simple.
    • Let's just keep it short but sweet and say the Coen brothers are just God's gift to filmmaking in general.
  • Slingblade is one of the best lesser-known films from the late '90s. Mm-hmm.
  • The African Queen so totally deserves to be on Rotten Tomatoes best films of all time list. There's something truly unique and captivating about the entire premise.
    • Seconded so hard. Good God, has Katharine Hepburn been any better? I submit that the answer is no. And yes, she has seen Adam's Rib and Little Women.
  • Clerks. There's barely any plot, a grand total of maybe six minutes of footage was taken outside that conviencence store, it looks like it was shot on a camcorder and then digitally edited to look worse, it's vulgar as all hell, and the actors were all complete amateurs. And it's probably the best independent film of the past twenty years. Many people praise Smith for the endless effort that went into it, but those people would've also would've praised him if the film had turned out to be complete shit. The writing and acting was absolutely amazing.
    • Seconded. I was at a point in my life when I had grown so disenchanted with everything when I discovered "Clerks" and realised that I was just like Dante. Brian O'Halloran may not be a traditionally attractive actor, but his portrayal of the character was just so damn relatable that it was impossible not to like him and root for him, despite — or perhaps even because of — all his flaws. And while the rest of the View Askew series is great, the character of Dante and his chemistry with Randal is why I return to "Clerks" over and over again. And can you think of a better way to end the series than the awesome hilarity that was "Clerks II"?
      • Clerks II does more than just show us how far Dante and Randal have come in twelve years, it shows us just how far everyone has come. O'Halloran and Anderson were never bad actors, in fact they were incredibly impressive for amateurs, but watch Randal's "The Reason You Suck" Speech and tell me, with a straight face, that he would've been able to pull off the jail scene in 1993. Tell me David Klien would've been able to shoot that dance sequence, even with a decent budget. Moreover, Mewes has sobered up once and for all and boy oh boy does it show. And look how wooden Smith is as Silent Bob in Clerks compared to his facial expressions in this movie. But moreover, the fucking script. Clerks was phenomenal, but the plot! The characterization! The story arced more than just curved! Every line was loaded with emotion, every shot told a story, check out that montage! This movie is hilarious, heartwrenching, and awesome in all the right places. Dante and Randal went from public-pool deep to Olympic-pool deep and it felt totally believable. This movie is the epitome of the Day in the Life comedy and even in light of Apatow and The Hangover stands out in my mind as the greatest comedy of the 2000s. It's the Life of Brian to Clerks's Holy Grail, and I love it.
  • A Christmas Story. It is honestly, to me, the second best Christmas movie ever made. It's a classic, who doesn't think "you'll shoot your eye out" when they see a BB gun? And the leg lamp... the movie just has too many good qualities to list. It never gets old. Never.
  • The Lord of the Rings trilogy is my favorite movie series ever. They have their flaws, yes, but I can never get tired of them no matter how many times I watch them. The acting, the music, the scenery, everything is just brilliant. Heck, I don't even care that the last one ends about 4 times. They're just amazing.
    • Amen to that! I hate the books, but those three movies are my all-time favorites.
    • They were definitely the most epic movies of all time. Seriously, I cried multiple times in the series, especially in the third. Needless to say, I haven't stopped thinking about them for a few weeks, and wish I was old enough to see them when they came out...
    • There is only one "best film ever", and that's the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
    • That's not even half of it, not to me. I've been a fan of the books since 1992, and lemme tell ya: Before 2001, LotR was "unfilmable". Not just because of the special effects. It was too long, too complex, too old-fashioned, and too well-loved by too-fanatical a fanbase, one that would surely lynch anybody who dared change anything in their beloved book. If the movie did stay faithful, the average moviegoing public would be bored to tears by the end of the first act - or so it was believed. There was no way on Earth "LotR: the Movie" was going to work. EXCEPT IT DID. I dare anyone to name a movie that better translated the heart and soul of a novel to the glory of the silver screen. It is better than it ever should have been, and it is stunning.
    • I saw the first movie when I was nine. I would have read the books first if I'd known of their existence, but since I didn't the films imprinted themselves into my mind. The fact that I've been an obsessee since then speaks for how good they are.
    • Never, perhaps, has there been a better example of a storybook world brought to life on the silver screen. Gorgeous, grand, majestic.
    • I was completely in awe when I watched the movies (I read the books first) and Return of the King is one of the only movies that has ever made me cry. I do not cry easily about anything, especially movies, but by the Tearjerker ending, I was sobbing to the point that I could barely breathe.
  • Die Hard didn't quite re-invent the wheel in terms of action movies, but in a time when most action heroes just went around with giant machine guns and shot people, John McClane was a witty, urbane New York cop who went through hell, matching snark-for-snark with Alan Rickman - Alan Rickman - all along the way. And he was best known then as the guy who did wine commercials!
    • DIE HARD. BEST. CHRISTMAS. MOVIE. EVER!!!
    • The story is also much more nuanced compared to most action flicks of the time. It eschews many of the typical action movie tropes, such as Bond Villain Stupidity, the hero being a One-Man Army who is Made of Iron, and Terrorists Without a Cause. Here, the villain is a cultured, charismatic, mastermind who comes in with a Batman Gambit that would've gone off flawlessly had McClane not been around. Furthermore, we get to see plenty of him throughout the film, as thanks to the radio chatter, we get to see him and McClane interact with each other a lot despite only coming face-to-face twice throughout the whole film. As for McClane himself, contrary to a typical action hero, his first plan of action upon finding the building taken over by terrorists is to call the cops. It's only when he's given no other choice that he takes them on himself. Throughout the whole film, the two play a game of Xanatos Speed Chess, with McClane doing everything in his power to discover and disrupt Hans's plans, and Hans constantly adjusting to deal with whatever setback McClane has caused him.
  • The original Highlander is just cheesy brilliance. Christopher Lambert does pretty well for a guy who didn't even speak English then, Sean Connery provides a great mentor and Clancy Brown as the Kurgan is probably the only bad guy other than the Joker to successfully be both ludicrously hammy and highly menacing. The awesome soundtrack helps very much as well.
    • The most wonderfully grand and over-the-top-and-cliched-in-a-VERY-good-way film I've ever seen, perhaps.
  • Avatar, freaking Avatar! Say what you want about the all-too familiar story, but no film since The Lord of the Rings has such enveloped me into a whole new world and given a grade-A thrill ride for all the senses than this. James Cameron is a genius, and 20th Century Fox has finally redeemed itself for a while.
    • Amen. Sure, the script was cheesy and the plot's been reused a few times, but it doesn't put a damper on the enjoyment factor. It was completely mindblowing, Pandora was incredibly well-realized, and I actually cared about the plot and characters.
    • I wish the internet would shut up and learn to appreciate such a masterpiece for what it was. It just won't stop!
  • Agora. So what if Christians bitch around, its still an awesome story, and we needed some accurate portrayals of Christianity on film anyway. Besides, I was too distracted by the nice looks of the main characters to note any aesop...
  • Shawn of The Dead is king! In a culture where slasher films have villians for protagonists and horror movies cater more to audience sadism than the desire to be scared shitless, I thought I'd never love a non-Asian horror movie again. But Shawn of The Dead hearkens back to what made the classics great, has awesome jokes, a much appreciated Spaced reunion, horror movie call-backs in spades, amazing writing, directing and acting, and it does something horror movies in the west hadn't done in decades: you love and identify with the heroes, so you're actually tense when you watch it, scared when the zombies come out, and sad when characters die. The scene where Ed gets bitten was horrifying for me, because I was frankly hadn't prepared myself for the eventuality. David you see coming, but not Ed. It was also far more subtle than other western horror movies. A lot of the tension is built by things that aren't inherently scary, but make you put it together in your head, like when Shawn goes into the mini mart the second time and he slips on something on the floor that you can't see. * shudder*
    • Seconded.
  • Zombieland was suprizingly amazing. Once again, a rare western horror film in that you care about the heroes, rather than just see them as fuel for sadistic violence.
  • Evil Dead 2. This film is made of win. To start with you have Bruce Campbell. Second of all you have Bruce Campbell. But the film itself manages to be scary, funny and action packed. While the first one took itself a bit too seriously and the third was too goofy at times, the second was spot on. The camera-work here is also amazing, it really enchances the mood. There's just one way to describe it: Groovy.
  • Shutter Island. God, I love Leonardo DiCaprio. And the whole movie just totally swallowed me up. I'm not at all familiar with psycological thrillers so to me, the movie was awesome.
  • Metropolis has a crazy plot, confused message, ridiculous mixed-up symbolism, over-the-top Expressionist-style acting, and it's still the most amazing goddamn thing I have ever seen. That movie completely pulls me in every time. Using fairly primitive methods (relying mostly on models, mirrors, and double-exposure) the director and crew created a completely realistic, believable futuristic city that formed the basis of most sci-fi settings to this day. All the actors are great, but a special shout-out has to go to the 18-year-old Brigitte Helm being able to create two clearly-distinguishable characters in her very first film (especially considering that Fritz Lang put her through constant hell on set). Basically, this movie IS science fiction. ...Oh, and did I mention the robot?
    • Agree on Brigitte Helm. The way she switches between a sweet Maria to the manic copy that throws herself so much that her speech, despite being in a silent film, still came out as epic and rousing.
    • As epic and engrossing as it gets.
  • Streets of Fire. An awesome soundtrack, awesome sets, good guys, bad guys, and explosions... Hard to go wrong!
  • Listen up you jive suckas, no movie this millenium is funnier than Black Dynamite! A wonderful Affectionate Parody that manages to be completely over the top yet recreates the look of blaxpoitation so spot on, there is nothing not awesome and hilarious and quotable about this movie. No knowledge of the genre is necessary to love it, but there are injokes and references aplenty for those who do.
  • Inglourious Basterds. Every scene is either emotionally thrilling and intriguing or just jam-packed with awesomeness: from the incredibly intense interrogations of the twistedly grandiose Jew Hunter Hans Landa, to the jailbreak of consummate anti-Nazi turncoat badass Hugo Stiglitz, to the raw delight of watching every Nazi big shot get taunted by a very vengeful orphan on a huge movie screen as they scramble before the all-consuming fire of her design. And, to top it all off, the hard-knuckle Basterds manage to pump Hitler full of lead before the entire theater crumbles, thoroughly rewriting history for the better. Inglourious Basterds is the masterpiece of all guilty pleasures.
    • Who says it has to be a Guilty Pleasure? It was a great movie—it was tightly written with probably the most intense dialogue I've ever seen in a film. You forgot the Bear Jew and his awesome baseball bat. I found myself rooting for all sides: Shosanna, the Basterds, and Landa. It has some excellent parodies of the World War II film genre, like Lt. Aldo Raine as mocking the typical John-Wayne-ish leaderly type, and Lt. Archie Hicox with his wonderfully over-the-top Stiff Upper Lip. Overall this film is just plain fun.
    • Inglourious Basterds was one of the best films of the decade. It has everything you could possibly want in a movie. If, as many have cynically assumed, the final line, "You know what? I think this just might be my masterpiece!" was Tarantino speaking to us, it is one of the few occasions in history in which a boast like that is not only justified but downright understated.
  • Signs. I don't care about the damn water weakness; this ain't Pokémon. Until we meet aliens, who's to say how they would even think? Plenty of things humans do, while irrational from a certain way, makes it's own sense when viewed from our standpoint. Oh yeah, the movie was awesome for being a contained, scary alien invasion film with more than just ray guns and anal probes. Not a single explosion. Yet sometimes it felt like you were on the edge of your seat. It was about family as much as anything else.
  • Unbreakable is the best thing M. Night Shymalan has ever made. While his penchant for twist endings is now a joke, this one was so well-done and so well-acted by Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson that it gives me chills every time.
  • Not a damn Carpenter film on this list? Well i will say big trouble in little china was the business. It combined the east with the west perfectlty and all we get nowadays is obnoxious rapper teaming up with martial artists. This was the pinacle however where the fight scenes are still of the wall and the comedy hits its mark.
    • John Carpenter is one of the best directors of all time, and so underrated that nobody even knows he's won an Oscar. If the Oscars were worth their own weight in pig shit then he would have won at least five or ten. Does it get more awesome than The Thing (1982)?
      • In this troper's mind, The Thing (1982) is the ultimate example of cinematic horror. There is not a single major element in this film that does not work and it nails just about every type of horror imaginable: isolation, paranoia, the crumbling of trust, Body Horror, Sanity Slippage, etc. Even the jump scares, something that I usually dislike, are well-executed providing psychological terror in addition to the physical surprise. The feeling of complete uncertainty at the end is something that I feel has never been matched in film before or since. Add on excellent performances all around, brilliant special effects that still hold up magnificently 30 years later (with a few small exceptions), a chilling musical score by the great Ennio Morricone, and spectacular atmosphere and it makes for one of the most flawless horror films in history.
  • No John Carpenter discussion is complete without Escape from New York. Also Halloween, which basically invented the modern slasher movie.
  • They live is a good movie with its over the top fights, B movie throwbacks and plot crazy enough to hold your interest. Oh and the plot can change in less time than a (insert random pop diva) changes outfits in a gig.
  • Street fighter. Yes I know its got haters but its a damn funny movie. It follows every cliche in a way that suspends all disbelief. A movie so quotable the script has probably been pasted word for word all over the internet. Year after destructoid and others take the time to share on the amusement. Its like the comedy that keeps on joking.
  • Blade is awesome. He IS the definition of badass. Every line, fight scene and plan is just up there.
  • Film/Phonebooth. A film made by the near run away name of joel schumacher. Despite being on a limited location. The concept and interaction never lets up. Of course a film with jack bauer as a vigilante would be awesome.
  • My girlfriend implored him to watch The Hangover. I dismissed repeatedly as a stupid 'frat-boy' comedy. Her repeated entreaties finally convinced me to give the movie a chance. I haven't stopped laughing since. "You are literally TOO DUMB to insult.".
  • Blazing Saddles. Yes. It was my grandfather's favorite movie, so naturally I got indoctrinated. And the more classic westerns you watch, the funnier it gets.
    • The only movie I've ever seen whose comedy is infallible. Not one bum joke in the whole damn thing. Not one!
    • IT'S TWUE!!! IT'S TWUE!!!
  • Defendor. After the movie I just had to smile and was in some bizarre happy state. The movie is brilliant. Not much else to say about it.
  • Kick-Ass is Exactly What It Says on the Tin .
  • MacGruber. It's so hilarious and over-the-top that you can't help but laugh at the sheer insanity. Plus it's directed by one-third of The Lonely Island trio, so that's a bonus!
  • Thanks to A Clockwork Orange, I will never watch movies or listen to "Singing in the Rain" the same way again. Malcolm Mcdowell and Stanley Kubrick were robbed of their Oscars for that movie!
    • Kubrick in general is the shit. The fanboys can whine all they want about the adaptation of The Shining, but you'll notice that's usually the only argument anyone even tries to make against it.
  • My ex boyfriend did not like the Marx Brothers' masterpiece Duck Soup. While it cannot be said that this was the only reason the relationship ended, it would be incorrect to say it was not a factor.
    • Good on ya. That movie is absolutely hilarious.
    • Anyone who doesn't like the Marx Brothers probably doesn't deserve you. The state room scene from A Night at the Opera is probably the single best scene in film history.
    • I would like to say that I feel Go West and At The Circus don't get enough love. They are just as amazing as the more well known Marx Brothers films. Particularly this scene from Go West.
  • I don't care what popular opinion is. Seltzer and Friedberg are hilarious. Meet the Spartans and Superhero Movie both almost had me in tears with laughter. It's just plain funny.
  • In my mind, Pulp Fiction is Quentin Tarantino's best work. The entire movie is so well written, casted, acted, directed, and produced. The movie has some of the best dialogue, and in my opinion, the chapter "Vincent Vega and Marsellus Wallace's Wife" is the greatest part of the movie.
    • The movie is fun incarnate distilled into a physical form on celluloid.
    • Agreed, but more than that, on a meta level, it works so perfectly when you break down the story. It's all you would ever need to teach in a film course.
    • And, whether or not QT intended it, Jules's and Vincent's contrasted character arcs are the best cinematic parable of humanity's responses to what may or may not be the "hand of God." No so-called "religious" movie has ever even come close.
  • I consider The Usual Suspects one of the greatest films of all time. A brilliantly executed plot with great performances, especially from Kevin Spacey, and perhaps the best ending of any film I've seen resulted in my watching it more times than any other film. Don't forget about Rashomon, the 1950 Akira Kurosawa film that also did a great job with the Rashomon Effect.
  • Osmosis Jones. I mean, really, we need more people like me to spread the love. I found it interesting how parts of the human body can represent a city, such as the brain for city hall, the kidneys for waste management, etc. Plus, the characters were funny and well-drawn, especially Ozzy.
  • Hi. My name is Master TMO and ... and ... * clears throat* ... I liked Doom. It's not a movie about real people on Mars, it's a video game caught on film, from the character names and personalities to the Boss Fights and how the creatures got easier to kill the farther into the movie (levels) you got.
  • Wes Anderson is my hero, and The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore changed my life. I love how Wes's film bring out the beauty inside the most flawed of all of us.
    • Rushmore is a rather forgotten or overlooked film. Is there no justice??
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's arguably my favorite movie, and my favorite book on top of that. Jack Nicholson. Just... Jack Nicholson.
  • Top Gun. Highly quotable, brilliant flying sequences, and one of the greatest movie soundtracks ever...it is made of awesome.
  • The film Stalker (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky is in my top ten films. It has the strongest plot and characterization, and the most beautiful cinematography and music, of the Tarkosvky films. It provokes intense contemplation and meditation and really makes viewers think about the film. If I had to see only one Russian film, it would be Stalker.
  • No Inception yet? Shame on you! While most cetainly not quotable or funny, it's perfectly paced and is one of the few films in the "sequel/adaptation mess" that makes you think, "Oh crap, the antagonist might be right!"
    • I concur. There will never be anything else quite like Joseph Gordon-Levitt fighting mooks in shifting gravity.
    • A few hours after I watched this film, I was in a daze. The next day, I couldn't shut up about it. If that happens to me, you know that it's the mark of an incredible movie. Oh, and not quotable or funny?
      Arthur: If you say don't think about elephants, what do you think about?
      Eames (to Arthur): You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
      Arthur: Give me a kiss.
      (They kiss)
      Ariadne: Um, they're still looking.
      Arthur: Oh well, it was worth a shot.
    • Hands down the film of the year. The shot of the city folding in on itself like a giant burrito is awesomeness itself.
  • I feel that I should mention Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. That movie was so great! It had a truck-load of tropes and possibly even more references to all things I loved! It was just purely an epic of epic epicness.
    • Seconded. I read the comics a few days before the movie came to theaters and I loved them, so I immediately had to see the movie. To this day, I have seen it five times and I still can't get enough of it! It just never gets old. Hell, me and my friends still crack up at the "I gotta pee on her!" line.
    • Third-ed. I am in lesbians with this series.
  • Cameron Crowe's masterpiece Almost Famous hits all the right notes, with interesting and believable characters, brilliant music, and some truly heartbreaking scenes. It's probably the most perfect film I've ever seen, and always leaves me feeling absurdly happy. Kate Hudson's character Penny Lane is adorable, too.
  • I'm really pissed that The Social Network hasn't gotten any notice at all on this site, as it's passed up for titles I frankly think are trash. And it's sad that it would have never made it to this page because it isn't a dumb movie with a gimmick, so thank god I exist. But, anyway, when I was watching it, I was bored, and when I got out of it, I thought it was good, and when I thought about it more, it was excellent. The direction is great, every shot is unique & sets the mood, the acting is stellar & contains some of the best performances of the year, and the script feels fast & natural, as each character feels unique with the script & loads of little details are in there. Each character is multi-layered, even characters with smaller parts like Christy Lee has a some good amount of depth. The movie itself is brillant, as it lets us ponder about, the coming of the internet and who we are in society. I plan to see it again on DVD, just so I can get all the details of the script. The fact that no-one will second this because "it's a movie about Facebook, derp!", is stupid. It's not just a movie about Facebook, that's calling Network "just about TV'. It's about the coming of the internet as a whole, and the part it plays in our everyday life. I plan to a Entry Pimp for this movie, it's that good. Oh, and Trent Reznor's soundtrack. The soundtrack showed me just how much music can add to a scene.
    • Seconded, seconded, Mother of God, seconded. There is not a single thing about that movie I did not like, so saying what I did like would take up too much space. It ties with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for my favorite movie of all time.
    • Entirely agreed, that movie is and probably will remain David Fincher's masterpiece and is the best movie of this century so far, the comparisons with Citizen Kane might even make it at least tie for best movie of all time, for some people at least.
  • I just saw Franklyn, and it's one of the best movies I've seen. At first i saw it as a sort of guilty pleasure; gratuitous coat/mask coolness, with little to no justification. Then the pieces started falling together, and.. Well, unlike apparently everyone else who has seen the movie, I think the plot was good too.
  • Wow. Wow. The page has already gotten this long and no mention of Citizen Kane? Yeah, you can whine about Hype Backlash all you want, but there's a reason the critics say it's the greatest film of all time. It pioneered techniques now ubiquitous in film, it has great story, great acting, great music, great everything, and it isn't afraid to let the audience figure things out for their selves. I have watched it several times and I still finds things she never noticed before.
    • What is so often overlooked or forgotten due to the film's overfamiliarity is that it is a wonderfully weird little movie, an unforgettably unique visual and tonal experience. It's awesome.
  • Ginger Snaps. Absolutely wonderful little Canadian Coming of Age/Sibling Rivalry/Werewolf movie. It manages to go from terrifying to hilarious to heart-breaking again and again, and instead of the mix of pathos being confused or diluting any emotions, it just enhances them and makes the film so, so real. Amazing.
  • The Expendables basically [[Troperiffic combined every element]] that I loved from action movies into one film. Not only that, but it was much funnier than I expected, and one of the few movies that I have seen multiple times in theaters. As soon as it was announced, I knew that I was going to go see it, and it did not disappoint. It's pretty much pure testosterone from beginning to end, and I loved every single minute of it.
  • The Matrix. No, I'm not talking about those damnable sequels, I'm talking about THE FUCKING MATRIX! The cyberpunk technology, the philosophical underpinnings, the martial arts, the ability to have things programmed into your brain while in a virtual world, the gunfights, that crazy "Bullet Time" thing, Morpheus, Neo, Agent Smith... I loved EVERYTHING about this movie! Hell, I even loved Keanu Reeves' acting because it actually fit the situation for once! If they hadn't killed off this film's fanbase with the sequels, it would still have a huge cult following to this day.
    • Your mileage DEFINITELY varies on this one, as ALL three films are my all time favourites! I never understood the hate for the sequels since I love them just as much as the first one. From the action sequences to the philosophy, from the plot to the visual style, I'm absolutely in love with the entire trilogy and everything related. So great!
  • TRON: Legacy. At first, it seemed like a risky proposition — after all, TRON had barely been mentioned for decades, and computer literacy is a lot higher these days than it was when the first film came out; there was a serious risk of the whole thing just coming off silly. But it didn't; the characters were handled well, the graphics were beautiful even without the 3D, and all in all just a great movie. Special mention for Quorra, whom Olivia Wilde handled magnificently.
  • Yeesh, with all the Nolan fanboys around you'd figure Memento would have made it onto here by now. But seriously, Memento is effing brilliant, for elevating what could have been a gimmicky plot device (The story's told backwards!) into a vital part of the story, not to mention great acting and visuals all around.
  • David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) is the. best. movie. I've. ever. seen. And as far as I can remember the only perfect movie I've ever seen. Which means that by definition it could never be topped, only equaled at best. That is all. And speaking of David Lean masterpieces, the desert scenery from Lawrence of Arabia is the closest to a religious experience I've ever come watching a movie. I do not mean that figuratively.
  • The BBC made-for-TV movies of the Miss Marple novels are the epitome of TV movies. The absolute pinnacle. They're almost uniformly extremely well adapted, they're shot with gorgeous scenery and sets that make me jealous I've never been to England, and Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple. Holy shit do these films hold up!
  • Barry Lyndon is enthralling. It's more than three hours long, but if you have the time and patience for it, it will blow your mind seven times over. It might look like dull Scenery Porn, but the images really are unbelievably beautiful. And the story is truly magnificent. It saddens me that so few people have seen this. So, to paraphrase Mr. Show, see the shit out of it!
  • I can't get enough of Superbad. Once my dad let me watch it for the first time in Fall of 2010, I have watched it over and over ever since. It's such a naughty and funny movie! My favorite character is Evan (but Seth and Fogell are cool too). I'm pretty much in love with Evan.
  • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is pure awesome. It'll make you laugh, cheer, and cry. And then laugh some more.
  • I would like to say a few things about The Red Violin. This extraordinary movie is notable for many reasons, such as completely avoiding Translation Convention, fake accents and nationalities and many more interesting technical qualities. But, first and foremost, it is the best constructed movie I've ever seen. All of the story's segments from the past enrich the interwoven present-day scene, which becomes more comprehensible and fascinating as you know more about the violin's history. The story depicts many different times, countries and ethnicities while reserving the unreal feeling we always get when faced with perfection - both in-universe as the characters meet the violin, and out, as we meet the movie. The actors do a wonderful job, playing their type (Jason Flemyng) or completely against it (Samuel Jackson). None of the characters are simplified, over-sexualized (which is a trap filmmakers really like to fall into), and they brilliantly convey the clash between human's petty, imperfect little nature when confronted with the ideal immortality of the instrument. And not a single scene takes place in the US, which is really, really original. Thank you.
  • Uh, hello? The Harry Potter movies! I am a huge fan of the books, and whilst the films don't always live up to the books, it is still refreshing to find a great book-to-movie adaption. Plus, in some places the movie expands on the books, which is great.
    • Seconded. Despite the large amount of book material the movies leave out, they have their own unique charm, and sometimes make changes from the books that are for the better. Plus they have a truly AMAZING cast and a beautiful score.
  • Steven Spielberg's 1941 is a very entertaining war farce from the writers of Back to the Future. The film with a comedic All-Star Cast harkens as an excellent film version of Saturday Night Live. Though Spielberg does look back on it with regret and the Bobs seldom mention it aside from it being their stepping stone to their eventual box office gold with BTTF, this is among Spielberg's most creative of his early works.
  • The 2005 remake of King Kong. It took a classic and reworked and expanded it better than could be expected. Its action sequences/CGI is fantastic and there are a surprising number of funny and heartwarming moments.
  • Magical Legend of the Leprechauns will always be my favourite childhood film. Just hearing a song from it or seeing even one scene never fails to bring a huge smile to my face. I used to watch it at least once a week from when I was 8-12 until the tape wore out and I never got sick of it. And it's still wonderful now at 18, despite (or perhaps because of) its high levels of narm and cheese.
  • Liar Liar is hands down the funniest Jim Carrey film. (though I'll admit Bruce Almighty is close) The blue pen and the speeding ticket scenes never stops being hilarious.
  • The Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer Movie. One of the greatest kids movies of all time and it still entertains me as an adult.
  • Stardust: I've never read the book, but the movie was EXCELLENT. The characters were great, the humor was just right, and the story was really fun and exciting.
  • Anybody else LOVE Newsies as a kid? One of my favorite movie musicals!
  • I saw Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as a movie before I ever knew any of the play—and though fans of the musical complain of changes, and Johhny and Helena's subpar singing, I found it to be an excellent film.
  • Love Actually is literally the greatest romantic comedy ever...excellent characters, excellent weaving of the storylines...just really excellent.
  • The 1953 sci-fi movie Them! is literally my favorite film of all time. It is excellently written, well directed, has enjoyable characters, is incredibly suspenseful, and even though the effects themselves are kind of outdated, the designs for the ants look quite frightening.
  • Blade Runner, especially the Final Cut. The overall feel and tone of this movie is just amazing. Not to mention Rutger Hauer's fantastic monologue and an awesome ending.
    • I absolutely agree. It is probably my favorite movie of all time and I can't get enough of it.
    • Don't forget the overall look, set design, cinematography and music that sets it far apart from other sci-fi films of the era and even films in general. It really is a special movie.
  • The entire RoboCop trilogy. The physical epitome of justice and badass in one and an awesomely heroic score (yes, even RoboCop 2) has made me a fan of Robo. In a world compiled of psychotic, cold, and unfeeling machines there's still only one who will do what's right. For Great Justice.
  • Usually, I despise movie adaptations of books I love. However, two adaptations to the big screen actually make me happy about the outcomes. One is Harry Potter, but that's already been mentioned. The other one is none other than Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Debatably, these movies are better than the books, because they have more heart, and they show the middle-school hero Greg in a different, more flawed light than he portrays himself in his journal. Besides all that, they're hysterical. Special mention should be given to Greg's counterparts, two of the funniest and best-developed characters in the films, in my humble opinion: the Gentle Giant best friend Rowley (who ends up getting all the fame and glory in the end of the first film) and the Big Brother Bully Rodrick (who turns out to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in the second film).
    • Second. I'm a big fan of the books, and the films do the best job of translating them to the big screen. Everyone is well casted and the humor is (mostly) top notch. I also love the emotional backbone of the films, especially the 3rd one.
  • Catwoman (2004) takes the cake. Its wholly ridiculous, over-the-top, and shamelessly deviated. But I have a lot of fun watching it when I do. Take it as a total B-movie, because that's exactly what it feels like.
    • With a surprising feminist subtext. Sharon Stone as an aging model was a great choice, because both the female leads face the problem of being taken seriously for their work in an industry the focuses on looks over talent.
  • The Spirit is an utterly bizarre movie that has a serious case of Quirky Work made by the equally bizarre mind of Frank Miller. But its totally out there (in a good way) and I feel it doesn't always get a fair shake because it deviated so heavily from the source material(though it wouldn't be the first, second or third to do so). It's deadpan characters who always seem to be having fun, especially The Octopus. Acres of Chewing the Scenery, just as much fetish fuel, and it allows you not to think too hard about about the inane brilliance of it all.
  • ANY PIXAR FILM EVER. No, literally. (Ok, I haven't seen Cars 2, but all the others.) How does a studio make that many good movies in a row?
  • Does the Clash of the Titans remake have plot holes? Sure. Does it get many parts of the original myth wrong? Yeah. Does that keep it from being a very entertaining film? Hell no.
  • C.R.A.Z.Y.. It's the best Coming-Out Story I have ever seen. The writing, acting, cinematography, and music are flawless. It's both hilarious and heart-wrenching, but if that wasn't enough there's a tasteful amount of Fanservice by men and women alike.
  • What about Downfall? Awesome character portrayal. And God, all those Gag Dub parodies are hilairious.
  • The Japanese Godzilla films are beloved by many for a reason. Developed by a team that put months of hard work to create the best practical effects of their time, the movies are full of amazing (or sometimes unintentionally goofy) visuals, fantastic creature designs, and stories that run from grim dramas to lighthearted comedies. There's something for everyone in the franchise's 60+ history. Truly, Toku at its finest.
  • The Marvel Cinematic Universe: It's like Uatu The Watcher stretched forth his hand, summoned everyone who loves Marvel superheroes, gave them blank checks and said, "Show us your dreams."
    • Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. plays himself as a Gadgeteer Genius who builds a suit of Powered Armor IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS! and goes on a rampage of terrorist Curb Stomping. Cue the Black Sabbath.
    • Thor: Ahem. "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." The Epic story of an Old Testament God becoming a New Testament God.
    • Captain America: The First Avenger is a well-produced movie propelled by the strength of our titular hero. Whether he's standing up to himself against big, bad bullies or fighting the forces of HYDRA as the ultimate Super-Soldier], Steve Rogers/Captain America takes the cake as the best superhero of 2011. Stories of good people doing good things simply because it's the right thing to do might seem old fashioned compared to the works full of deconstruction and gritty realism common today, but that's sometimes just what you need. In The First Avenger the sheer comic-y awesomeness of the action scenes combines with a hero who is every inch The Cape to bring a movie that can't help but make you smile. The characters are brilliant, the villain is diabolical, the score is just awesome and patriotic... What more could you want from a superhero film? Add to that gush-worthy supporting characters, a kick-ass musical score, and rip-roaring action evocative of 1940s adventure serials and you've got one of the best comic book movies ever made.
    • And all those movies were all just buildup for the real story: The Avengers. Every character has been introduced, and now they all shine under the direction of the single geekiest man in Hollywood; Joss Whedon. Alan Silvestri's score is peanut butter to all that chocolate. The result is already being hailed as one of the best movies of all time. While tons of directors are going for the Darker and Edgier approach, The Avengers went and reminded us why we loved the very films said directors are deconstructing. It dared to be BOTH incredibly stylish AND full of substance.
  • The Warriors. Can 8 guys, leaderless, unarmed, make it from the Bronx to Coney, 28 miles of "the most dangerous city in America," via subway, with every cop and gang-kid in the city looking for them? OH YEAH. Great lighting, great editing, wonderful use of deep-focus cinematography, and even some great dialogue and performance. Sure the realism is on the level of the 60's Batman show. It all still works. "You Warriors are good. Real good." "The best."
    • As I say to my friends/family/casual acquaintances when I wax eloquent about this film, faulting The Warriors for not being a realistic portrayal of Big Rotten Apple gangs is like faulting West Side Story (1961) for the same reason. Also, the hand-to-hand fight sequences are better than just about anything done by anyone not named Bruce Lee. And, as Danny Peary's Cult Movies points out, how many movies successfully adapt "Anabasis" and baseball?
  • The Devil's Advocate was my favourite movie as a child (no, really) and I still love it today. This was the picture that made me fall in love with Al Pacino.
  • Up in the Air: A brilliantly poignant movie with brilliant performances from George Clooney and Anna Kendrick. Seriously this movie made me fall in love with Anna. I mean i saw her in that weird movie with the vampires (Yes I know the name of the movie and yes I saw it too) but she really shined in this movie. She deserved that Oscar. Sigh. But anyways back to gushing, this movie has a special place in my heart because at the time of watching it I was going through what Ryan was going through and this movie will be my wingtip whilst uther tropers are watching all of the movies in this gush list. Sigh. (Happy sigh this time!)
  • Little Miss Sunshine was amazing, the acting, characters, script, amazing. The scene with Dwayne, you know the one, made me cry. And Steve Carrel needs to play more serious characters, and grow out a beard like that again.
  • Despite frankly ridiculous levels of fame I feel this film gets ignored a lot, because it's often shown to children of a really young age who forget it when they grow up. Which is a shame, because The Wizard of Oz is, to me, the best film ever made. It's got everything; beautiful sets, lovely music, brilliant acting, and amazing special effects (everyone forgets that this was one of the earliest technicolor films ever made, and stepping through the door to Munchkinland is a magnificent bit of camera work that works just as well today as it did in 1938.) And by Hollywood standards, it's a pretty faithful adaptation of L. Frank Baum's original novel.
    • It's got history, it's got character, it's got a sweet moral. It's clean enough to show to toddlers, and funny enough to make cynical adults laugh, especially The Wizard's lines. When you're a little kid, the Wizard's a strange old man who knows a lot of long words, but when you're an adult, he's a funny con-man using words he doesn't understand to sound important. That level of script writing is truly amazing.
    • But the best part are those iconic characters. My personal favourite is the Scarecrow, because honestly who doesn't love a sweet, intelligent (albeit completely ignorant) guy who can barely stand up and yet manages to save Dorothy from the Wicked Witch (who then immediately saves him back, killing the Witch in the process), but really all the characters are simply fantastic. The Wizard of Oz deserves to be called wonderful.
  • Hello good sir, do you have Prince-Albert-in-a-Can? You do? Well you better let the poor guy out! WA-HA, WA-HA, WA-HA!
  • You know what the cure for depression is? A Hard Day's Night. As a contemporary reviewer skeptical of Beatlemania put it, "Though I don't pretend to understand what makes these four rather odd-looking boys so fascinating to so many scores of millions of people, I admit that I feel a certain mindless joy stealing over me as they caper about uttering sounds." And even if you're somehow immune to its hilarious charm, you've still got to love it because it pretty much invented the modern-day Music Video and pioneered movie techniques that we still use today. Not bad for a Non-Actor Vehicle about a boy band!
  • High Noon: It may be an old 1950s western, but it embodies Moment of Awesome. First there's the characters: Kane, the brave sheriff whose disgust at the townspeople is shared by the audience; Amy, his pacifist wife who ends up turning ALL kinds of awesome at the end; even Miller, the villain, radiated Badass. The story is dark and tragic, and by the second act you want to cry for poor Kane, but then it turns awesome at high noon, when the fight scene begins. And then there's the theme song...
  • Taxi Driver is my favorite Scorsese film. The entire film is about one man's desparate attempts to escape the drudgery and grime he experiences daily. Robert De Niro was amazing as Travis Bickle, the man who gave us You Talkin' to Me?.
  • Hellraiser is a family drama, with demons coming in the last ten minutes. In this tropers opinion, Clive Barker is the most under rated horror film maker of our life time.
  • All the President's Men was so awesome it was genius. I know they just dramatized the true story, but DAMN they did it well. It was such a colossal snub that they didn't give it the Oscar for Best Picture, but, well, follow the money and it leads straight to the fear of the powers-that-be that we ordinary folks might become the next Bernstein and/or Woodward.
  • Master and Commander is a great movie beyond pure distilled awesomeness, with great sea adventure and cool guys from the British Navy. You will love Captain "Lucky Jack" Aubrey the minute you see him. He's a tough badass of a captain but caring and cheerful who commands a happy ship. His friendship with Dr. Stephen Maturin is deep and real, with heated arguments when you can understand both sides and with softer moments with believable Heterosexual Life-Partners dynamic. Stephen is a brilliant doctor and a most worthy person, and his devotion to science just feels amazing. His smirk or tearful smile can tell more than hundreds of words. The film also has Lord Blakeney, one of the cutest Plucky Middies ever seen on the silver screen. Nautical Folklore is Played With for all its worth with deliberate ambiguity and hidden symbolic meanings, and it also deals with difficult themes like suicide, child soldiers or medical care aboard ships, believably and realistically. The final battle is simply stunning. Its score is wonderful, using lots of classical pieces that fit it perfectly. The ending with an unexpected twist and cheerful music — the violin and the cello, courtesy of the captain and the doctor — is absolutely great and satisfying, yet makes you want to experience more with these characters, and their other adventures.
  • The Room (2003) by Tommy Wiseau is the epitome of So Bad, It's Good and my utlimate guilty pleasure. It's bad but every single scene manages to be unintentionally laughable and entertaining. Nothing is a waste: The incredibly bad acting, awkward sex scenes, an old lady who casually mentions her breast cancer then never speaks of this again, random scenes that are irrelevant to the plot, out of the blue lines, and even more!
  • A lot of underappreciated gems on here, but The Dark Crystal belongs here too. A great story - even if it is a riff on LOTR, Jim Henson's workshop cranking it to 11, a music score that rivals anything by Williams, Goldsmith, and Horner (oh, my!)...hopefully I'm not the loner on this one.
  • Gravity, Jesus Christ Gravity. Visual Effects of Awesome, Awesome Music, amazing acting...This is probably the only film where you'll be simultaneously awed by the beauty and scared out of your pants
  • Dracula (1931). FREAKING DRACULA. Bela Lugosi's performance as the Count was awesome.
    • On top of that, all of the old Universal monster movies. They're the definitive monsters even today and had a shared universe and crossovers decades before The Avengers.
  • Out of all of the films that have come out this decade so far, I doubt any of them will top the beauty that is Cloud Atlas. It's not my favorite movie of all time, but GODDAMN, it provides a rush of cinema that makes other big-budget greats like The Avengers and Avatar look downright small in comparison. The multiple usage of actors playing different roles and all with help of, for the most part, excellent make-up, highly quotable dialogue, suspenseful action sequences, memorable characters, breathtaking scope, a hauntingly whimsical score and outright immaculate pacing. It may not have won the biggest awards out there or achieve the widest audience possible, but its easily the best thing The Wachowskis (and Tom Tykwer too!) will ever make and a film that will stand the test of time.
  • Gremlins is probably the greatest motion picture to grace a movie theater besides Forrest Gump and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Even without the likable characters, and that touch of 80s nostalgia, the monsters are the most entertaining in film history and are so entertaining, that you'd rather root for them than the heroes.
I feel like I'm not doing as well as I should. Surely, Frozen deserves all the praise that the critics are giving them.
  • Almost every movie made by Laurel and Hardy is awesome and utterly hilarious, along with the fact how they can make every single situation they get up to turn into one gigantic Epic Fail, but I love The Music Box. It definitely deserves its reputation as the greatest Laurel and Hardy film ever made, and it did deserve its Oscar. The gags are spot on, Stan and Ollie's acting is absolutely wonderful, the characters are lovable and who can forget the constant fails to get the piano up the stairs, when they could have just gone round a hill instead? This is the ultimate Laurel and Hardy short, and every fan or newcomer should watch it first (or Busy Bodies.) And do you want to know why I love it so much? Well, I was binging on Creepypastas one night, and the tales (and horrific images) were burned into my brain. I slept with the lights on. Then one day I watched the film on Youtube. and soon I was laughing, and all the horrifying tales stuck in my brain were destroyed completely. That's why they're worth watching. Because there is nothing like two men in bowler hats beating the crap out of Zalgo in your dreams.
    • Similarly, there's Beau Hunks, which is just as funny, and has so many awesome moments you want to join the French Foreign Legion. Oh, and that Big Badass Battle Sequence is very much worth watching over and over again.
  • I take this space to Gush about Rush. Such a kickass movie and my favorite of 2013. Wonderfully acted (Daniel Brühl deserved all of the awards, he was robbed), heartwarming, oozes with the Rule of Cool and it's just a great movie that both makes you care and thoroughly entertains you, besides being extremely relatable.
  • Not one bit of love for Young Frankenstein? Seriously? How many movies are there where the filmmakers come up with stuff on the fly because they're having so much fun filming, they don't want to stop? PUDDINONDARIZZZ!!
  • There is far too little love for The Wolfman. Okay, so it was somewhat cheesy, maybe they relied a bit too much on jump scares and buckets of blood, and maybe the twist was silly, but it was damn fun! The special effects courtesy of the great Rick Baker were amazing, and a breathe of fresh air after the CGI that seems to permeate all other werewolf movies, the titular character managed to look suitably menacing while still very visibly being inspired by the Lon Chaney Jr original. Anthony Hopkins did great as the mad Sir John, and Hugo Weaving was awesome as the skeptical, deadpan snarking Inspector Abberline. While Emily Blunt was unfortunately relegated to a rather token love interest role, she still played her character convincingly, as did Benicio Del Toro with his brooding Lawrence Talbot. The atmosphere they created around in the eerie forests of Blackmoor and Talbot Hall, as well as the foggy streets of London was amazing, very reminiscent of Sleepy Hollow (1999) and other good horror flicks. Frankly, while not a great film, this movie was a masterpiece compared to a lot of the other stuff in the werewolf genre these days. And c'mon, how could you not get pumped during Lawrence's transformation in the asylum and subsequent rampage through Victorian London? "I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!"
  • The lack of musicals on here saddens me deeply.
    • 42nd Street is one of the best of the Thirties musicals and a plain treat to watch.
    • Who doesn't love Singin' in the Rain? Brings a smile to my face every time. Just a feel good film.
    • Mary Poppins. Full stop. Just Mary Poppins. Every. Single. Minute.
    • While we're on the topic of the incomparable Julie Andrews, Sound of Music is another well earned Best Picture win. Also one of few films to have enough whimsy for children and also touch on a serious and dark time for the world.
    • Grease, cheesy as it may be, is still one of the most enjoyable experiences ever put to film.
    • Moulin Rouge! takes your favorite songs and puts it into a fantastical film full of bright colors and wonderful performances.
    • Chicago is easily one of the most well done movies of all time. Every song is magnificently choreographed (and I love how almost all the songs take place in one character's mind - a real modern take on the musical).
    • For all it's faults, and I'm not saying there aren't many, but Les Mis was wonderful.
    • [1] is a very fun movie.
    • Top Hat is Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' finest. Great songs, elegant settings, and a great supporting cast in Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Helen Broderick, and Erik Rhodes.
  • Singin' in the Rain deserves its own entry, so here goes: First, it's got the best performance of a hall of fame performer, Gene Kelly. Second, it's got an astonishing early performance from a talented newcomer, Debbie Reynolds, who actually had to become a dancer when she was selected for the part. Third, it's got by far the best, funniest, and most memorable performances from two criminally underused talents, Jean Hagen and Donald O'Connor, both of whom should have won best supporting actor/actress Oscars for their work. Fourth, the music, full stop. Fifth, the love poem that the movie is to the end of the silent age and the beginning of "talkies" — writers Betty Comden and Adolph Green interviewed lots of old-timers around the MGM lot and worked from their reminiscences. Sixth, it ranks up there with Casablanca and The Princess Bride for some of the most quotable dialogue of all time — I dare not start or I'll never finish this entry. Seventh and finally, the choreography and dancing respectively are only rivaled by some of the work of Busby Berkeley and Fred Astaire. Actually I have to go further; this movie has a claim for Best Pure Solo Dance (SITR itself), Best Stunt Solo With Props and Extras ("Make 'Em Laugh"), Best Male Dance Duo (two nominees —"Fit as a Fiddle" and "Moses Supposes") and Best Trio ("Good Morning"). I'll stop now.
  • Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel definitely Needs More Love. It's an amazing movie, despite and indeed possibly because it was made on a shoestring budget. The characters are believable, the dialogue amazingly manages to be funny as well as realistic (so much so that you sometimes forget that it's a movie, despite all the unrealistic stuff happening - the characters' reactions to the crazy things that happen are just so real) and there are tons of Shout-Out|s to famous Time Travel series, most of which are so subtle that fans of the film probably still haven't found them all. It's just amazing. See it for yourself, you won't regret it.
  • For all the degrees of fire catching, you still haven't mentioned The Hunger Games here? Damn you tropers, damn you! While the book was just good, the film was really awesome. And the second one is so incredible it averts the "rule of sequels". Everything is so cool you just can't stop watching...
  • Kingsman: The Secret Service is an absolute masterpiece. Granted, it doesn't break new storytelling ground (though, frankly, nothing does these days with only seven basic plots and all that), but everything it tries to do it does so smoothly and without flaw. It's over the top. It's full of audacity. It's full of interesting characters. It's incredibly entertaining. It's awesome and drenched in the rule of cool. It's perfectly cast, led by a star-making performance by Taron Egerton (the biggest surprise in a movie full of them). It became my second favorite movie (out of hundreds) right after first watching it, only behind The Social Network. It's the first movie that made me wish for a sequel when I wasn't even done watching it yet, just to spend more time with the fully realized spy world. It became the first movie I watched more than thrice in theaters and the one I've watched the most in theaters so far (ten times over four weeks). It cemented Matthew Vaughn, for me, as the best of the "geek" directors in vogue nowadays and this is easily his materpiece. This is just an awesome movie for me and easily 2015's best, even if I understand it's not for everyone.
  • 40 year old male troper here, and I will say without an ounce of shame that Wall-e, to me, is Pixar's crown jewel. I get teary-eyed over the ending every damn time. And no, it's not the onions. This movie is just that good.
  • Lots of things done by Terry Gilliam, but specifically Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Brazil, and 12 Monkeys.
    • On the subject of 12 Monkeys, the short film it was based off of, La Jetee, should be mentioned.
  • Lethal Weapon, full stop. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover have a perfect chemistry as two cops who have completely different personalities, but somehow they manage to work together. The action scenes are a joy (and thrill) to watch, and it's overall a really well-made movie! The sequels aren't too shabby either.
  • Equilibrium is awesome, and not just because it invented Gun Kata. The cinematography is exquisite, the acting is great, I love the story, and said Gun Kata scenes are excellent. All in all, just a great, Animesque movie.
  • It's hard to believe now, but Pat Morita was once known as just a comic actor from Happy Days. That changed forever in 1984. Seriously, who didn't want to take up martial arts after watching him curb stomp five kids without breaking a sweat? The best around, indeed.
  • Ang Lee's Hulk is severely underrated and made comic book films more intellectual before The Dark Knight Trilogy began two years after it's release. The acting by Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott should have gotten Oscar nominations.
  • Synecdoche, New York is the most beautiful, heartwrenching film I've ever watched. And by god, how I adore it. It's grand scale, it's surrealist visuals and story, everything works together to create the most beautiful film I've ever watched. And don't forget the EXCELLENT soundtrack by Jon Brion.
  • Honestly, even outside of how they listened to feedback and improved Sonic's design, Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) still has way more stuff to gush about than it has the right to. The excellent character-driven writing, the wonderfully charming humor, and the story that— don't let some plot description fool you— manages to have a surprising amount of emotional elegance within its simplicity. Hell, I don't even care anymore that this one didn't have too many explicit game elements. Aside from how it's meant to set them up for when they can really shine, it's already pretty good on its own merits!
  • Arrival is an absolutely beautiful movie from start to finish. It's poignant, emotional, and tugs at my heartstrings in a way that nothing else I've ever watched has done. The Heptapods are animated very well, and have this mysterious yet benevolent nature to them that makes them so intriguing. And even though this is an alien invasion movie, it's not about aliens. Louise is the heart and core of this story, and we ultimately follow her through the wonderful, flawed journey she has. And then wrap that up with a beautifully bittersweet yet heartfelt ending. It's such a very, very human story, and that's what makes it so special.
  • The Red Shoes is a masterpiece from start to finish. Every shot in this movie takes advantage of the three-strip Technicolor process, and is filled to the brim with Awesome Music. The ballet scene has effects that still hold up 75 years later, especially the scene where Vicki dances with a living newspaper. The performances are incredible, the film takes you on a journey full of emotion. This is also the film that inspired Gene Kelly to do the ballet in An American in Paris.
  • The Rambo franchise. All five of them. They're so good to the point that it inspired other movies like Commando, the Missing in Action trilogy, Strike Commando, Aliens, and Predator as well as video games like Contra, Ikari Warriors, and Operation Wolf. The movies tell the tale of John Rambo, a former Green Beret who served in the Vietnam War and has PTSD. In the first installment, First Blood, we see Rambo returning home only to find him wrongfully arrested by an overzealous town sheriff and immediately breaks out. What we get is a rather heartbreaking and emotional story about the horrors of the Vietnam War and how Rambo struggled to find civilian life in the aftermath of it all. The acting from Sylvester Stallone is surprisingly great in this movie. The second installment, Rambo: First Blood Part II, is about Rambo, who is recruited by Trautman to return to Vietnam to find missing POWs. This is the Rambo everyone knows and loves, where Rambo becomes the ultimate action movie hero and One-Man Army, complete with awesome action scenes and kills for Rambo. The third movie, Rambo III, has Rambo going to Afghanistan to rescue Trautman, as he's his only friend that he ever cared for. In my opinion, this is Rambo's definitive appearance as he has a rocking mullet, muscular body, and headband, exactly how I think of him when it comes to Rambo. It even has a spectacular final battle at the end, when Rambo and Trautman take on the entire Soviet army while being aided by the rebels. Rambo IV features a much darker tone than the first three, all while being Bloodier and Gorier. It has Rambo going to Burma to rescue a group of missionaries after they get captured by the ruthless Burmese army there. The villain there is much darker and more evil than the other ones, but despite all the carnage, is still a good movie. Like the third, it too features an awesome finale where Rambo brutally kills the bad guys and is aided by the rebels. The final installment, Rambo: Last Blood, drops the war scale of the previous movies and goes for a more Taken style approach, where Rambo tries to save a kidnapped girl from ruthless Human Traffickers in Mexico. Don't let the slow pace and lower body count fool you, though, it's just as dark and bloody as the fourth movie. And like the third and fourth movie, it also ends with an epic and awesome final battle as Rambo lures the villains to his ranch and he brutally disposes them in an R-rated Home Alone scenario. I don't care what other people say, all five movies are great, and Rambo is easily one of my favorite movie characters of all time for all the fun and action they had as well as inspiring other works as described earlier. Last Blood, along with Avengers: Endgame, was also one of the few movies in the theater to actually make me cry!
  • Top Gun is quite possibly one of the greatest action movies to involve flying and ace pilots, complete with its cast, catchy soundtrack, and awesome action scenes. This is the movie that put Tom Cruise on the Hollywood map. It's about a fighter pilot in the Navy who, after one of his fellow pilots resigns, is given a chance to enter the titular school of the same name, where he makes rivals with another pilot and falls for an instructor there. I watch this movie a lot, it's to the point where I sing almost every song in this movie and even quote the most famous line in the movie every time it gets to the scene: "I feel the need, the need for speed!"
  • Anyone who has doubts that Arnold Schwarzenegger is incapable of a decent performance in any movie that doesn't involve a whole lot of gunplay needs to check out Maggie right now. Besides the rather novel concept of treating a zombie epidemic as a drama rather than horror, Arnold gives a performance that actually has some meat on the bones; it's a documented fact that he took the gig for free - he loved the script that much - but he most certainly does not phone in his performance. Seriously, go check it out.
  • No Kaiju fans here to speak up for Gamera? Sure, the Showa Era ones are full of cheese, but the Heisei Era is top-notch kaiju storytelling- especially Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys, a serious contender for one of the best giant monster movies ever made. A kaiju movie that's also just a plain good movie- dripping with mysticism to set it apart from Godzilla, and also nailing the balance between human and kaiju characters. The cinematography, creature design, and soundtrack are excellent, and the themes of love, faith, and loyalty in the face of loss and tragedy are present throughout, with a central question of "How far would you go for the ones that you love?". That's not to discount the previous films of the Heisei Era- Legion's design goes so incredibly hard, and the much-beloved tradition of making the Gyaos into an all-devouring swarm started here. The oft-forgotten forth film of the era, Gamera the Brave, may be a Lighter and Softer Continuity Reboot, but it's still a good kaiju story with plenty of charm and heart, as well as a message about the uncertainty of growing up and facing the world.

Alternative Title(s): Film

Top