Recommend me some films?

[Treblaine]

Depends a lot on what you want:

Gran-Torino: Clint Eastwood. just watch it
The Changeling: Directed by Clint Eastwood... also just freaking watch it.
28 Days later: Modern classic of British horror
Shaun of the Dead: Wonderful classic British Comedy twist on Zombies
Evil Dead 1 & 2: Classic classic horror horror
Chinatown: New Film Noir
Citizen Kane: Do you REALLY need a reason?
No Country For Old Men: hard to explain why this is so good
There Will be Blood: amazing tale about oil prospecting, told as if it was a monster movie. Very good.
AKIRA: This is a MUST if you are even the slightest bit interested in anime.
Robocop:
Terminator 2:
Children of Men: no woman on earth can have babies any more, humanity will die out within a generation. Bloody. Good. Film.
The Thing
Blade Runner
Brazil
V for Vendetta: Allan Moore comic brilliantly realised on film
Charlie Wilson's War: The story of America's involvement in the Soviet- Afghan war.
HEAT
The Untouchables: When Sean Connery says the line: "If they put one of our guys in the Hospital, we put one of their in the Morge!" you know this is a classic.
Star Trek:
2, 3, 4, and 6: Did I miss out number 5? You miss it too. Number 6 is my fav after 2.

Monty Python:
-Holy Grail
-Life of Brian
-meaning of Life
Airplane!: Yes, possibly the funnies films (in terms of laughs per minute) ever.


Great Action flics:
Rambo 4 (also 1, 2 and 3)
Taken
Shooter
District 13

Jackie Chan in "Operation Condor" "Project A" and "Drunken Master 2": these following films are IMHO all on par with the classic Indiana Jones films in terms of action, adventure and humour. In many ways they are superior.

Death Proof
Planet Terror
The Mummy
The Kingdom
300
Ronin
The Hunted


Also, quite under-appreciated is "The Score" by Frank Oz (yeah, I know, the Voice of Miss Piggy) but I'm telling you it's a damn good heist movie.

 

[The Lost Big Boss]

Snatch, just saw it and it was amazing.

 

[Mewick_Alex]

HOTEL RWANDA

Good call.

Also Serenity, Taken, Dawn of the Dead (modern version) and Black Hawk Down.

 

[Xanadu84]

Just grab everything done by Terry Gilliam. I won't even say they're the best movies out there, but there's certainly a lot to talk about in terms of how there made. 12 Monkeys is probably the most accessible (Time traveler Bruce Willis has to try to prevent a killer pandemic that happened in the past, but with some very strange twists), and Brazil is an absolute must (Think of 1984 as a comedy). If you really want to blow your teachers mind though, watch, "Tideland". Its possibly the most ridiculous movie i've ever seen. It's...umm...okay, words fail me, so here just the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tideland_%28film%29 . Bees are powerfully jealous creatures.

Its sad because ti seems like no one else has seen Tideland.

Its a long shot, but there's a movie called, "Time Crimes" that would make a good companion to 12 Monkeys. This guy travels back in time, and creates the occurrences that have happened to him during the course of the day, and things slowly spiral into weirdness. Its possibly the best time travel story ive seen.

 

[Noogai]

The Negotiator

 

[obex]

Recently I started sixth form, and one of the subjects I decided to take was Film Studies, and as a result I get to borrow films from the school library.

The point of the thread is this: what are some good films that I should take out? I'm willing to watch anything so long as it's decent. And if you include a brief synopsis of the film, no spoilers please.

EDIT: I also took History, Biology and Classical Civilisation for my A-levels, so stop being smug.

A scanner darkly is a amazing film with a very deep plot about an undercover cop trying to bust a drugs ring in an Orwellian future where everything is recorded, it documents the psychosis and metal break down he suffers from not only drugs but the strain of leading a double life. It also feature a unique art direction.


I am also doing history and Biology A levels Whoo!

 

[mayney93]

star wars series and anything by guy Ritchie my favourite of his is lock stock and 2 smoking barrels

 

[Agrosmurf]

Funny Games
A very disturbing horror movie, that never shows the actuall deaths. It a major mindfuck.

Sin City
Very interesting filming. Black and white, mostly. Baced on a comic book..

Crank 2
For the sole reason of crazy filming techniques. Oh, and it's badass.

 

[hippo24]

Army of Darkness.
/thread

/thread

 

[Iampringles]

Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, Donnie Darko, Superbad, The Dark Knight, Pulp Fiction.

 

[kemosabi4]

In Bruge - Ok, so it's got Colin Farrell in it but really; you have to look past that because he is just so damn good in it. It is one of the best films I've ever seen. If you're doing film studies it's a good one to do because of the way the atmosphere is set and the scenery used and all of the long shots of a beautiful city.

See this now. NOW!

Hot Fuzz- I've heard it's not as good as Shaun of the Dead, but it's a damn funny movie

Ferris Bueller's Day Off- A classic comedy about living your life and seizing the day. Driven partly by inner monologues and hilarious sub-plots, FBDO is a must-see.

Snatch- This movie about the criminal world beautifully intertwines several stories of different groups, mobs, and gangs all trying to get a hold of a huge diamond somewhere in the London underground. (the crime world, not the metro) The various sub-plots and plot twists are pulled off with grace, and the plot remains exciting and unpredictable from start to finish. Characters are varied and the humor is easy to grasp. The film bears a striking resemblance in theme, motifs, and style to Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

1408- Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a writer who writes books about the paranormal. He has a lot to live with; his daughter died, his wife left him, and he doesn't even believe in ghosts. He receives a postcard to write about Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in NYC. Upon checking in, he discovers the hotel room is possessed, an evil spirt bent on making people suffer. Enslin must come to terms with himself in order to escape Room 1408.

This film is my favorite horror movie because, while most horror films nowadays are nothing but psychotic, invincible killers running around knocking people off, 1408 grasps that true, psychological horror is taking something you know and twisting it, making it seem as if the whole known universe is out to get you, and making the protagonist and the viewers not only afraid for the known, but for the unknown. Creating an unpredictable environment unleashes a sense of pure, uncontrollable fear. Psychological horror means more than just startling people. You have to delve deep, fuck with the mind. For example,

Spoiler: *Spoiler Alert!*

there's a part where the room transforms itself to look damaged and charred. Enslin sees his daughter, who died of cancer as a young child, standing amidst the rubble. She begins crying and saying she wants to go home. Enslin takes her in his arms, begins sobbing, and tells her "I've got you right here. I'll never let you go." as she slowly begins to crumble apart in his hands.

If you can do something on par with that, you've got yourself a damn good horror movie. Must see. Sorry I took so long on that one. I just wanted to explain some things.

 

[Hazy]

Let the Right One In. Best. Vampire Movie. Ever. It brings all the glory back to Vampires that Twilight destroyed.

Sin City. Artistic ball bustingly awesome movie based on a Frank Miller comic.

Athough I have yet to see the former, the latter is spectacular.

I would go with Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas (Which I enjoyed more than the Godfather) and Clerks.
Fight Club as well.

 

[molester jester]

A Scanner Darkly
Fight club
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Snatch
Lock Stock and two smoking barrels
Full Metal Jacket
Platoon
Goodfellas
Human Traffic
Spun

 

[Miss_M]

There are so many Tarantino suggestions here! In terms of films to study, how about trying some Coen Brothers films like Fargo and The Big Lebowski? Both excellent. Or if you want something a bit more weird and adventurous, try something by Pedro Almodovar. He's an incredibly flamboyant gay Spanish director who was at the forefront of the Spanish punk movement. His films are about transvestites and drug pedaling nuns and women with massive clevages in histronics - freaking awesome! Try All About My Mother and Volver (both won Oscars I think). My favourite is Tie Me Up Tie Me Down, where Antonio Banderas is let out of a mental institution and goes and kidnaps a drug addict porn star he once had sex with and ties her up til she falls in love with him. Finally could could try Nightwatch, a really interesting and stylised Russian fantasy-horror film - it's well worth a look.

 

[RebelRising]

Nosferatu the Vampyre, directed by Werner Herzog is a very chilling, beautiful remake of the original silent film. The music, combined with imagery both Wagnerian and Gothic, is a testament to the audio-visual element.

The Devil's Rejects, directed by Rob Zombie, is a very fun and very visceral slasher flick. The actors are very engaging to watch, as are the various crimes they commit.

Inferno, directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro, is an Italian silent film from 1911, almost 100 years ago. The technological and artistic prowess displayed here is beautiful, as Gustave Dore's illustrations come to life, with Tangerine Dream's soothing, dreamlike soundtrack filling in both the background and foreground.

 

[Xhumed]

Series 5: The Contenders- a brilliant satire of reality television.

Blue Velvet- A Lynchian classic.

The Maltese Falcon- fantastic film Noir, as is D.O.A, and The Big Sleep
.
Any of Hitchcock's output, especially Rear Window, Psycho and The Birds.

Halloween (the John Carpenter version, naturally)- one of horror's most iconic characters, and pretty much invented a whole genre of films.

Nosferatu- quintessential German expressionism, along with Metropolis.

Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, especially The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and Once Upon A Time In The West.

Unforgiven- Clint Eastwood's subversion of the Western genre

Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I & II (but not three.)

That's just of the top of my head, mind.

 

[Starke]

The Shining, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, The Shawshank Redemption and Tim Burtons Batman, guess who my favourite actor is?

Val Kilmer?

In all seriousness though, there's a lot of good recommendations on the board already.
Chinatown and Apocalypse Now both took far too long to make it on this thread, and they're both very good films to pull out. As is Sunset Boulevard. If you want more, I could cough up the film list from my American Film class last year.

 

[kemosabi4]

Fight club

SHIT! Forgot about that one!