What is Your Favorite Movie? (Oldies Included)

[Mr. Peabody]

What is Your Favorite Movie Ever? (Oldies Included)

Some members on this forum are true ancients.  But I have heard that there are a few things so epic that even ancients don't forget them.

1. Life milestones ( *ahem*)
2. Over the hills and far away (40th BD, no escaping this one.)
3. A really good movie

The latter is what we will be focusing on in this discussion. What is the best movie that you have ever seen in your 17, 30, 40, ect. years? What is the most memorable moment that you can recall from that movie? Perhaps you favorite movie didn't achieve an off-the-charts rating, but you enjoyed it for a specific IRL reason or scene. This thread is the place where you can share these vintage moments with the forum.

Just to make things clear though, I do have a selfish reason for firing up this thread. I myself am hunting for old movies that I should have watched by now, but have somehow slipped through my searches. So go ahead, find me the movies that I need to see. 

I will get things started by sharing (probably) the best scene of one of the best movies that I have seen up to this point: (In my opinion.) Zulu (1964)

Spoiler

 

 

[Geonovast]

If you haven't seen The Princess Bride, what are you even doing?

[Cydonian Monk]

"Bridge on the River Kwai." And really anything by David Lean, who was a master of so many technical aspects of the art. But Bridge is a movie I can watch any day. 

[Nuke]

if were talking war movies, its siege at firebase gloria and apocalypse now. if were talking scifi, its 2001, planet of the apes, forbidden planet, alien(s), and many others. guy movies, its a tie between fight club and reservoir dogs. best silent movie, probably metropolis. 

6 hours ago, Geonovast said:

If you haven't seen The Princess Bride, what are you even doing?

i think i skipped the phase in life where that movie would be appealing. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Nuke

[kerbiloid]

6 hours ago, The Dunatian said:

true ancients

So nice euphemism for "fossils"...

P.S.
Batman (1966).
To see that nowadays superheroes are not the worst thing in the Universe.

Edited June 10, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Superfluous J]

52 minutes ago, Nuke said:

i think i skipped the phase in life where that movie would be appealing.

Normally when I reply something that sounds snarky like "I'm so sad for you" it sounds snarky because I'm being snarky. But this time I'm 100% totally sincere when I say that.

But while Princess Bride is one of the all time greats, it is not my favorite movie of all time. That movie up until a few years ago was Raiders of the Lost Ark (you youngins may know of it as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark). These days, I'm still deciding if that was usurped by the first Avengers movie.

[StrandedonEarth]

RotLA was good, yes (and I never knew it as "Indiana Jones and...") but I have to say that the movie I was most blown away by when I saw it in the theater was Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Groundbreaking effects (yeah, the morphing software effect was developed for Willow, but T2 went all-in with digital F/X) good story (A boy and his terminator) and some great one-liners ("He'll live.")

And of course, there's the original Star Wars. No follow-on title, no episode number, just... Star Wars

But I really have a hard time deciding "My Favorite..." anything.

And I've never seen The Princess Bride

[benzman]

I have a few favourite movies that I could watch just about every day - the original Star Wars, Mad Max II, Excalibur, City of Lost Children, Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors - probably a few more.

 

[StrandedonEarth]

17 minutes ago, benzman said:

 Mad Max II,

 

Ah yes, The Road Warrior, another excellent classic from my youth. Not surprising that it would be an Aussie pick

[Nuke]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

So nice euphemism for "fossils"...

P.S.
Batman (1966).
To see that nowadays superheroes are not the worst thing in the Universe.

meh, too much nitzsche. 

[Nuke]

55 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

Normally when I reply something that sounds snarky like "I'm so sad for you" it sounds snarky because I'm being snarky. But this time I'm 100% totally sincere when I say that.

But while Princess Bride is one of the all time greats, it is not my favorite movie of all time. That movie up until a few years ago was Raiders of the Lost Ark (you youngins may know of it as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark). These days, I'm still deciding if that was usurped by the first Avengers movie.

its sort of how being desensitized to horror movies early in life has ruined the genre for me. i do enjoy them sometimes, but its usually for different reasons than everyone else and i seldom rate them as top movies (though watch cabin in the woods as it pays homage to the genre and gives an entirely new take on it). tpb also combines two genres im not really fond of, comedy, and fantasy. much like horror, being bombarded with endless streams of sitcoms early in life didnt help much. and i mostly didnt like fantasy due to lack of exposure to it. i do remember watching the death wish movies back when i was in grade school while everyone else was still watching cartoons. my youth was a far cry from the disney generation. 

[Chel]

This is a tough one. I'd have to say Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith, for it's great opening, quotes, and the memes! 

Oh it's beautiful 

Spoiler

yes I know that's from Rogue One but I had trouble thinking of a quote like that from EP3 without using fun begins 

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by The_Cat_In_Space
accidentally had double '

[razark]

There's no single answer to that.  It varies with my mood.

But quite often, I'd probably answer with The Maltese Falcon. 

 

(Can I claim Lord of the Rings as a single movie?)

[IncongruousGoat]

Second-favorite movie is a really hard one. I don't think I could reasonably choose. Heck, I have a hard time choosing favorites for most things.

But first, most favorite movie? That one's easy. Apollo 13.

Edited January 19, 2020 by IncongruousGoat

[Mr. Peabody]

10 hours ago, razark said:

(Can I claim Lord of the Rings as a single movie?)

I see we share a common interest in the realm of the fantastic.  May I assume you are also a fan of J.R. Tolkien?

6 hours ago, IncongruousGoat said:

But first, most favorite movie? That one's easy. Apollo 13.

I am intending to watch that movie some time this week. It's crazy that I enjoy space, history, and historical drama is my favorite genre, but I still haven't seen the movie yet.

[Dartguy]

The African Queen is my favorite.  Just can't beat Bogart and Hepburn.

[WinkAllKerb'']

no favorite movies or book properly said.

i'm not the kind of person that gonna read or watch a lot of movies, on the other hand when much  younger i could read or watch a single movie more than hundreds time.

with aging , i tend to think this sort of result in deciphering a single story board and imbd script many layers and metaphors, this is also why i tend to think all movies or book are all the same, just renaming caracters, changing the background, reordering the events.
 

Spoiler

[edit2: basically 4 line of code "exquisite corpse" wich is the reason i don't write myself (while many people encouraged me do so alongst my life) when 4 lines of code can do it, sound pointless to me, and i don't like at all the idea i could become famous thks to the "exquisite corpse" process, being a random biped being is fine to me ]

i know it's kinda a depressive point of view, but it's like that for me

and this is also why i m totally incompatible with one specific forum rule, and camp the lounge and sub forum "because i tend to always speak my mind and it always bring me into trouble" , ) and save the moderators team from unwanted drama on the front pages , )

for exemple one movies i have seen hundred time: "dark city" but as said not favourite or what just one of those few i watched a lot to melt them all.

Edited June 11, 2019 by WinkAllKerb''
prperly => properly

[razark]

12 minutes ago, The Dunatian said:

May I assume you are also a fan of J.R. Tolkien?

I've read LotR and Hobbit, but I haven't read any of his others.

I like the movies also due to the way it really seemed to capture the epic feel of the world.  It just draws me into it.

[FleshJeb]

@Cydonian Monk,  @razark, @Dartguy: Ah, men of ACTUAL culture, I see.

Lawrence of Arabia (dir. David Lean) is probably my favorite movie, and Peter O'Toole probably my favorite actor. I'm semi-obsessed with the real Lawrence.

Bogart and Bacall in the The Big Sleep (dir. Howard Hawks). Not as good a movie as African Queen (which I've seen a bajillion times), but the dialog and chemistry when they first meet is astounding.

Katherine Hepburn against O'Toole in The Lion In Winter. (Shoutout to Cate Blanchett playing Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator, because Cate Blanchett is good in everything.)

---

Comedies:

The Thin Man series.

Some Like It Hot, (dir. Billy Wilder).

Any Cary Grant comedy.

Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles

---

War Movies: Patton

---

Funny story from the DVD extras of African Queen: John Huston is trying to give some direction to Bogart. Bogart gets frustrated and says, "I've only got three expressions, John--Pick one!"

[lajoswinkler]

I can't say which one I like the best but on the top of my mind, "There will be blood" is a damn good one and a true masterpiece in my humble opinion.

[PakledHostage]

Favorites of anything are by definition subjective, so I am not even going to try and convince anyone to agree with me. Heck, even my own feelings about any one film tends to change with my mood. But I love any movie that stays in my thoughts for a few days (or weeks, or years) afterwards. Some that have done that for me that I can think of as I write this are:

The Princess Bride (Inconceivable! ...But always a reliable pop culture reference...)

Slow West

Ex Machina

Hell or High Water

Mount St. Elias

Apollo 11

The Little Prince 

In The Shadow of the Moon

Stand by Me

I look forward to introducing that last one to my son when he's old enough.

[Klapaucius]

This is really hard to parse down, but:

 

Aliens (the original version. The director's cut is inferior in every way. Some films are killed by overediting--eg Brazil. Aliens was not one of them. The original release is perfect.

Pather Panchali (I think this is one of the greatest films ever made. Begali filmmaker Satyajit Ray's first film and the 1st part of the Apu Trilogy (the others are brilliant as well).

Safety Last (Harold Lloyd silent film)

The Lives of Others (brilliant German film about life in East Germany under the Stasi)

The Blues Brothers

The Wizard of Oz (just because because because because)

Lawrence of Arabia

Raise the Red Lantern

The Holy Grail

Most films by Ingmar Bergman

 

 

 

Probably the funniest film I saw in the last few years would be "What We Do In The Shadows."  I'm not into vampires and thought it was done to death until I saw this NZ film. Brilliant.

 

I know there is something major I am leaving out, but it is not coming to me at the moment....

 

 

 

[XB-70A]

My favorite of all time, since I saw it at 4 is... Top Gun.

Yes, this movie is empty of any "moral" message, the dialogues are majorly flat, and the play of some actors below average, but it will remain my favorites forever because of an element: the Tomcat. This film was the one that made me dream of flying, the first day I saw these images of the F-14, I saw the aircraft with the ultimate elegance, mixing beauty with aggressiveness. What stands out from the dogfighting scenes literally made my eyes shine. The A-4 and F-5 are agile and responsive, while the F-14 sways behind them, heavy but using its power to follow them.

One actor who have marked me in this film, and despite his minor presence, I would count Tom Skerritt (Viper).

 

Otherwise, the top favorite list would be never-ending, but here are some that really marked me:

- Stalker (1979), almost three hours long (far from beating Cleopatra or Warhol's Sleep), but one of the darkest and most touching atmosphere.

 

- On the Beach (1959), a movie that was ahead of its time, and also... Ava Gardner .

 

- The 9th Company (2005), I liked this film for its long scene and contrasts. The fixed plan on the rear door of the Antonov An-12 remains fantastic.

 

- Porco Rosso (1992), this one gave me dreams too . Plus Joe Hisaishi's original soundtrack .

 

- Vanishing Point (1971),... the Challenger.

 

- Internal Affairs Trilogy (2002-2003), let's be honest, HK has a long history of making great movies, plus the direction by Lau.

 

- Ekipazh (1979), imagine Airport 1975, but with a Tupolev Tu-154B-1 instead of a Boeing 747-123. It can only be good.

 

- Hamle Be H-3 (1994), this one was extremely hard to find, as it was broadcast only a few times in Iran. The dialogues are boring, and some unnecessary scenes, but it's probably the movie with the most beautiful shots of F-4 Phantom II of all. Now it can be easily found in streaming on many sites.

 

- Lebanon (2009), a unique atmosphere to be "locked up" in the Sho't, periscopes and optics being the only vision we have of the outside. 

 

- Das Boot (1981), when I hear that The Hunt for Red October is the best submarine film of all time, I know that some have not seen the wonder of Petersen... (don't get me wrong, I really like THfRO, Connery being my long-time favorite actor).

 

- The Beast of War (1988), I really liked the "personification" of the T-55. Slow and heavy but devastating, it is truly the Beast of Destruction.

[WinkAllKerb'']

nicholson cukoo nest is a great one ;also

[tater]

Hard to pick a favorite. Like @The Dunatian, I'm a fan of Zulu which I have seen many times (though the use of fill lighting is really hamfisted), but it's not my fave.

Movies I really like (no particular order):

Casablanca

The Third Man

The Duelists

Roman Holiday (what's not to like about young Audrey Hepburn)

Barry Lyndon (the cinematography... wow. I like most Kubrik)

Lawrence of Arabia