Top Twenty Films

[Idle Miscreant]

After a rather illuminating conversation in the Grumblebox, concerning an admiration for Jock and his pet Snake in Indiana Jones, I was reminded of my own occasionally unusual fixations in film history.
As many people like making little lists, I thought we could all list our Top Twenty (favourites, not necessarily the “Best”)…partially to gain some film recs, and partially to peer insidiously into each other's minds…

I view such lists as revealing a private mythology, and a form of personality “shorthand”, but I understand other people might simply say “Here’s a bunch of films I like, fucko, don’t read too much into it.”
Which is grand.

My Top Ten hasn’t altered since I was 15 yrs old….so evidently my personality hasn’t either.
Maybe I should try “growing” like Sheldon, and become somebody completely different.
Arses.

TOP TEN
The Sting
Casablanca
Lawrence of Arabia
Death in Venice
Amadeus
The Man Who Would Be King
Withnail and I
Blues Brothers
Zorba the Greek
Aguirre: The Wrath of God

<Honourable Mentions>
Goya in Bordeaux
The Third Man
The Seventh Seal
Le Samourai
Onegin
Blade Runner
Master and Commander
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Zero Kelvin

I love putting Roger Rabbit and Seventh Seal in the same category…Potentially people could make a subsection for “Enjoyable Idiocy”...

So, any other idle bastards want to add theirs?

Edited. Bloody forgot Blade Runner. Ta Space. Also, I'm not including ANY Buster Keaton or Marx Brothers because then there wouldn't be room for anything else.
Also, Monty Python films are a given.

[Toad]

"Peer insiduously" away, y'all.

I suppose what these films say about me is that I have an affection for the oddball, the person who unselfconsciously does their own thing and goes their own way, sometimes being triumphant in the end, sometimes not.

These are not in numerical order because, quite simply, my mind doesn't work that way, but I have helpfully ordered them by release date. There's also more than twenty... And, yes, I'm embarrassed by the shocking dearth of foreign films...

The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Heiress (1949)
Harvey (1950)
Baby Doll (1956)
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Vertigo (1958)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Psycho (1960)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Lolita (1962)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Haunting (1963)
A Big Hand For the Little Lady (1966)
Lord Love a Duck (1966)
The Odd Couple (1968)
Take the Money and Run (1969)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Jaws (1975)
My Favorite Year (1982)
Tootsie (1982)
Withnail and I (1987)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Funny Farm (1988)
Housekeeping (1988)
Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Office Space (1999)
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

[SpaceAnJL]

Bladerunner (I like the noir voiceover, but the Director's Cut ending. Also, NOT a Replicant.)
The Breakfast Club
Labyrinth
Legend
Dark Crystal
Ghostbusters
Conan the Barbarian
Highlander
Jason and the Argonauts
Monsters Inc
Terminator (just the first one)
Original Star Wars Trilogy (There were only ever three films, I don't care)
Indiana Jones Trilogy (Likewise)
Serenity (See above for why I like space cowboys)
(*)Honourable mention to Peter Jackson for getting Middle Earth almost perfectly.
Bringing Up Baby
Casablanca
Weismuller's 'Tarzan' films
Rathbone's 'Holmes' films, likewise....


Is that twenty, or more than twenty, or how are you counting this? Because once I start getting into b&w Hollywood, we could be here for a long time... And there's my gleeful love of cartoon colours and reckless lunatics that makes the latest Marvel stuff fun, too. I mean, I don't quite like what Joss did with the Avengers, which is heresy of a sort, I know, but it gave us the Science Bros. Even if I think Loki was obviously being controlled by Thanos, bloody idiot heroes.

...damn, I forgot 'Truly, Madly, Deeply', which made me bawl and cemented an undying love of Alan Rickman, even with the horrible moustache.

edit: And 'The Prestige' , an instance where the film blows the book out of the water.

edit2: Ladyhawke! How the hell did I forget that one, it's a keystone.

edit3: Big Trouble in Little China

[queenoftheDales]

No particular order

Donnie Darko
Twelve Monkeys
Se7en
The Illusionist (Edward Norton )
Die Hard-the entire trilogy
American Beauty
Gattaca
Anything with Sam Rockwell
Red (1&2)
Leon: The Professional
The Breakfast Club
Steel Magnolias
The Color Purple
The Lion King (1&2)
Gunners Palace (a doc that actually showed the Iraq/US war accurately)
Sicko
Saving Private Ryan
Jarhead
Three Kings
Grandma's Boy
Team America: World Police
Forest Gump
Full Metal Jacket

I hate going to the movies so I'm limited to remembering to get something on DVD or whatever. AND I have a thing for Bruce Willis, what can ya do?

[FlyingMonkey]

Just off the top of head, in no particular order. Part of my criteria is that these are movies that I HAVE to stop and watch if I'm channel surfing.

The Godfather I & II
No Country For Old Men
Patton
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
Caddyshack
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Unforgiven
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Casablanca
Fargo
Pulp Fiction
Jaws
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Indiana Jones 1 & 3
Star Wars original trilogy
Star Trek IV: The Wrath of Kahn
Being There
Field of Dreams
Napoleon Dynamite - just to annoy my wife. She hates it.
Best In Show- same as above

[ricardo shillyshally]

I love Apocalypse Now! An anti war, war film! The first time I saw it was at a party, and I'd had some mushrooms. It was too much. But I can watch it every couple of years. I even read the Joseph Conrad book. The Outlaw Josey Wales is probably the best western ever made, closely followed by No Country For Old Men.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Being John Malkovich
Gattaca (I see queen likes this as well)
Rear Window (Jimmy Stewart)
Manhattan Murder Mystery (I think this is the funniest Woody Allen one)
Withnail and I (of course)
Galaxy Quest
The Producers (not the remake! 1968 with Gene Wilder)
Moon
Blade Runner
Alien (all of them except bleedin' Winona Rider and her annoying whistley voice)
Submarine (Richard Ayoade's directing debut)
ET (makes me cry)
Total Recall
The Cement Garden (creepy and amazing, my friend played the male lead)
Dazed and Confused (flopped at the cinema, but Tarantino named it one of his faves of all time. Nothing much happens but it's great!)
The Lost Boys
The Virgin Suicides (just beautiful which has a lot to do with the soundtrack by 'Air')
Donnie Darko
Fifth Element
Shaun of the Dead

Ooooh I do like 'Some like it hot' but that makes 21 and these were the first 20 I thought of.

DAMN IT - This is Spinal Tap!
And yes Monkey - Star Trek IV: The Wrath of Kahn

CONFESSION: I have never seen Casablanca.

[ricardo shillyshally]

The Devil's Backbone by Guillermo del Toro. Terminator 2. Amarcord by Fellini. The Conversation by Coppola. About My Mother and Volver by Almodovar.

[Wisp]

I need to think about this... I'll get back to ya thread.

[ricardo shillyshally]

Monsters by Gareth Edwards. Life Of Brian. House of Flying Daggers, and most of those wuxia films. We Need To Talk About Kevin. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.