top ten films off the top of your head

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top ten films off the top of your head

Postby lightningBugout » Thu May 13, 2010 1:53 am

that is to say, without over thinking it - 10 films that changed you. pretend noone's watching. that could include some genius moment in, say, toy story 2 or just what you've watched recently. point is, spontaneity is key....

-- Angela (1995)
-- Dreams by Kurosawa
-- Home Movie
-- The Sacrifice
-- Pierrot La Fou
-- The Last Wave
-- Begotten
-- On the Beach (original)
-- Walkabout
-- Eddie Izzard Dressed to Kill (executive transvestite!!!)

hollywood trash? Pineapple Express is one of the smartest most challenging films in aeons (no joke)
"What's robbing a bank compared with founding a bank?" Bertolt Brecht
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby stefano » Thu May 13, 2010 3:37 am

I haven't seen one of yours...

I love a movie that does clever things visually. I think philosophy comes across better in prose.

The Big Lebowski, The Wall (Pink Floyd), Fight Club, The man who wasn't there, Run Lola run, Dogville, The barbarian invasions, The constant gardener, Agora, Donnie Darko.

Edit: Brazil!
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby lightningBugout » Thu May 13, 2010 3:42 am

Donnie Darko is so f'in timeless. On one hand, its criticism/interpretation is so predictable. But on another that film is a parapolitical miracle.
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby Nordic » Wed May 19, 2010 3:20 am

Days of Heaven
Barton Fink
Diva
Clockwork Orange
Paper Moon
Memento
Midnight Cowboy
Dark Passage
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Casino


There are a hell of a lot more. I always have trouble with the "what's your favorite ________" questions. I go blank.
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby Nordic » Wed May 19, 2010 3:24 am

Shit, there were so many from the Golden Period of american cinema, oh I'd say about 1966 through 1973 or so

Midnight Cowboy
Network
Taxi Driver
Lawrence of Arabia
Catch 22
The Graduate
Little Big Man
Don't Look Now
They Shoot Horses Don't They
Chinatown
McCabe and Mrs. Miller

Shit, there's eleven and I hardly got started.
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby Cordelia » Wed May 19, 2010 10:55 am

Jeez Nordic, who can forget 'Don't Look Now', from the brilliant first scene and the prescient red stain spilling down the slide of the Cathedral, and on........

Off the top of my head; films that were haunting, mesmerizing and/or beautiful:
Whistle Down The Wind
Solaris (the original, not the remake)
The Last Wave
Elvira Madigan
Days of Heaven
The Plumber
Don't Look Now
The Elephant Man
The Return of Martin Guerre
Last of The Mohicans
many more.........including The Prestige..........
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby DeltaDawn » Wed May 19, 2010 11:08 am

Really don't watch many movies, attention span is short but:
Gladiator
The Passion
Mutiny on The Bounty
Manchurian Candidate
Forrest Gump
The Exorcist
The Sixth Sense
African Queen
Fatal Attraction
The Ten Commandments

on edit: Didn't say what I meant, attention span is alright, just hate sitting for that long :roll:
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby Stephen Morgan » Sun Jun 06, 2010 4:09 pm

Serenity, liked that. Quite a satisfactory conclusion for the series.
My Brother Tom. British film, child sexual abuse, rather disturbing.
Princess Bride, many a trope namer.
Star Trek II, The Wrath of Khan.
Die Hard, obviously.
Vanishing Point.
TimeCrimes, which I believe is French.
JCVD.
The Hide.
The Big Hit.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible. -- Lawrence of Arabia
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:17 am

The myth machine! Our awesome luck to go everywhere, experience everything, be everyone without ever leaving home!

A list that would differ by the day, these are movies that stayed with me since first viewing, some because I'm a sap. The first two I always mention!

Koyanisqatsi
Blade Runner
Mona Lisa
Barry Lyndon (& add whole Kubrick oeuvre from Paths of Glory & Dr. Strangelove forward)
Mean Streets (& add large chunks of Scorcese oeuvre, high point Goodfellas)
The Third Man
The Battle of Algiers
Z
Pi (& Requiem for a Dream & The Wrestler)
Vagabonde

That's 10. Then I cheated and looked at the past & present netflix queue to see, but most of these I mention because they knocked me over after having seen them first-run or in revivals long ago, often twice. Some sort of embarrassing in retrospect. (Betty Blue, the boy-fantasy wish girlfriend!)
Kings and Queen
Blue Velvet
The Brother from Another Planet
Oldboy
Atlantic City
Zardoz
Festen (The Celebration, Dogma No. 1)
Sleep Dealer
District 9
Persepolis
Happiness
Orlando
They Live
Velvet Goldmine
Fight Club
Liquid Sky
Nashville & The Player
Farewell My Concubine
Blow Up
Rope & Strangers On a Train
Alice (Czech version)
M
Wall Street & JFK
Do the Right Thing (& Malcolm X)
Betty Blue
Chinatown
Hero & House of Flying Daggers, the masterpieces of High Wire Fu
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Weekend
Casablanca
Bartolomeusnacht
The Counterfeiters
Home
Il Divo
The Graduate
Midnight Cowboy

Ulp! Empire Strikes Back sure had me at the time.

And now a selection of the post-Bush documentary wave, the first three always come spontaneously to mind as seminal:
The Corporation
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Why We Fight
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Enron)
Our Brand Is Crisis
9/11: Press for Truth
Hijacking Catastrophe
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Katrina, Spike Lee)
Bowling for Columbine
Control Room
My Country, My Country (Iraq)
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
The Road to Guantanamo
The End of Suburbia
The Fog of War
American Drug War
Who Killed the Electric Car
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Jun 08, 2010 1:36 am

Sorry, hope I'm not hogging!

And now my favorites for each of the posters so far:

Morgan: Vanishing Point & Trek II, irresistibly.

DeltaDawn: Manchurian Candidate.

Cordelia: Solaris & The Prestige.

Nordic: All of'em, pretty much. I'll go with Little Big Man.

LBO: Yes on Darko and I actually haven't seen most on your first list. On The Beach, I certainly remember. Got to kiss a certain Laurel goodnight!

stefano: Big Lebowski and I'd have to confess I watched The Wall seven times with my first real girlfriend April-Dawn the week it came out. Can't overestimate in retrospect the impact those albums had on my youth.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby streeb » Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:41 pm

Mods, Jack is TOTALLY cheating ALL OVER THE PLACE

Massacre at Central High
Phantom of the Paradise
Werewolves on Wheels
Headless Eyes
The Abductors
Starship Invasions
Shriek of the Mutilated
Black Shampoo
The Black Gestapo
Dracula Vs. Frankenstein (Al Adamson, yo)
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby Stephen Morgan » Tue Jun 08, 2010 2:09 pm

JackRiddler wrote:Morgan: Vanishing Point & Trek II, irresistibly.


So not Die Hard, then?
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible. -- Lawrence of Arabia
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:48 pm

streeb wrote:Mods, Jack is TOTALLY cheating ALL OVER THE PLACE

Massacre at Central High
Phantom of the Paradise
Werewolves on Wheels
Headless Eyes
The Abductors
Starship Invasions
Shriek of the Mutilated
Black Shampoo
The Black Gestapo
Dracula Vs. Frankenstein (Al Adamson, yo)


Am not! My first 10 really were 10 off the top of my head. Okay, I left out "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" and "Freddie Goes To Hell" and replaced these with hoity-toity art films to make myself look fancy posh smart. Satisfied?

By the way, "They Will Fight... And They Will Win!!!" Goddamn insect terrorists!!!

PS - I am your goddamn father!!!
Last edited by JackRiddler on Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:50 pm

Stephen Morgan wrote:
JackRiddler wrote:Morgan: Vanishing Point & Trek II, irresistibly.


So not Die Hard, then?


I disliked the whole series because of the unhappy endings. Especially the one where Jeremy Irons is denied in his totally brilliant plan to seize all the gold at the New York Federal Reserve.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
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Re: top ten films off the top of your head

Postby streeb » Tue Jun 08, 2010 7:15 pm

I disliked the whole series because of the unhappy endings. Especially the one where Jeremy Irons is denied in his totally brilliant plan to seize all the gold at the New York Federal Reserve.


But Jeremy Irons also had the best hair ever in that film. You know it.
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