Top 5 favorite movies

[ShaneGR]

List em here! I'm withholding mine at a secret location.

[Radical Activist]

1. Lawrence of Arabia

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Waking the Dead
Koyaanisqatsi
The Matrix

[edbermac]

5. Alright radical!! Koyaanisqatsi is one of my faves...

...along with Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. Great visuals and even better Philip Glass scores. Also one called Baraka, made by a guy named Ron Fricke who did a lot of camerawork on Koyaanisqatsi...

[Radical Activist]

21. Powaqqatsi has my favorite music of the three

i love that one too. I still haven't seen Naqoyqatsi but I can't wait to find it on DVD.

[JimmyJazz]

2. okay, here goes (in no particular order):

1. Rude Boy
2. Casablanca
3. The Wedding Singer
4. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains
5. Times Square

You said "favorite," so I took that to mean "ones to watch over and over again" as opposed to "best" which would include some heavier fare than what I have above.

[punpirate]

3. Based on the ones I tend to watch again and again

1) Dr. Strangelove
2) Thief
3) The Man in the White Suit
4) 1984 (later version)
5) Real Genius

[acmavm]

4. In no particular order

Local Hero
Grace Quigley
The Shawshank Redemption
The Wizard of Oz
Arsenic and Old Lace
ALSO have to add: A Civil Action (just couldn't leave it out.

[BootinUp]

6. These come to mind.

The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Unforgiven
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Star Trek IV: Voyage Home
The Bicentennial Man

:)

[BootinUp]

8. can I add these?

China Syndrome.
Glory.

[JimmyJazz]

11. No, you can't

:7

I totally agree with Glory being on your list. I wrote that one down, too. But, again, I went with the lighter fare. My list of best movies would definitely include Glory and the Shawshank Redemption.

[Mizmoon]

49. I LOVE The Outlaw Josey Wales

You've got good taste!

I also love:
The Right Stuff
Coal Miner's Daughter
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
and
Close Encounters of the Third Kind

[HawkerHurricane]

7. Following the 'watch over and over again' logic...

1. Midway
fairly acurate historically, the attached love story is well done (if unhistorical), and makes a good comment on the Japanese Internment issue.

2. X-Men 2
Better than the original, the 'Wolverine vs. Army invaders' sequence caught the spirit of the character from the comics better than any other comics movie.

3. Spider Man
With great power comes great responsibility... a varient on the Biblical 'to whom much has been given, much will be asked'. And Democrats answer to 'it's all about me'.

4. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Shatner chews the scenery, Montalban quotes Melville, and the best space battle sequences ever... this is not a fighter plane dogfight, it's dreadnaughts at knife fighting range.

5. Them
The first, best 1950's giant radioactive insect movie, the others are pale immatations. Watch this, and see where the stereotypical brilliant scientest and beautiful daughter, speach about we don't know enough about nuclear power, and two guys in love with the girl and the better of the two sacrificing himself comes from.

[MrSandman]

37. Did you know "Midway" (one of my Faves)

Was shot with only three aircraft.

[HawkerHurricane]

41. If you don't count...

the WW2 film used (and shots from Tora!Tora!Tora!), yes.

[MrSandman]

48. If I counted those....

Ens. Gay flew about 4 types of aircraft on one sortie.

[HawkerHurricane]

51. I counted 3...

TBF Avenger (take off), TBD Devastator (close ups), F4F2 Hellcat (crash into water).

Of course, the close ups were in a sound stage, so of course they had the right aircraft.

(A complaint about the movie Pearl Harbor: for the movie, they had paper mache P-40 Warhawks and CGI P-40 Warhawks... so why did they show the late war models with six .50 cal machine guns in the wings, instead of the early war version with two nose mounts and four wing mounts?)

[MrSandman]

56. Maybe that is a metaphor for something...

An out of service aircraft followed by an in service aircraft, followed by a yet to be deployed aircraft.


Midway did a really good job telling the story of the Battle by not getting locked into graphical minutiae.

Didn't the shot of the plane that crashed on the Yorktown and broke apart actually crashing on a different Yorktown? CVS 10 not CV 5?

[HawkerHurricane]

59. It was a different carrier...

It was an Essex Class, but I don't remember seeing the hull number. (For those lurking, Yorktown was a Yorktown class, built in the early 1930's; Essex Class was built during the war off of a heavy cruiser hull).

As for metaphor...
'The Three Planes of Ensign George Gay'
Avengers first saw action during Midway (the Hornet Detatchment); 6 of them assigned to Hornet transfered to Midway Island because they weren't cleared for carrier operation yet. Avengers where the most used carrier attack plane from 1943 on; as the U.S. got it's act together with the photographers it's not surprising that there are plenty of photos of them taking off, landing, and so on.
Devastators saw thier last action at Midway, with 38 shot down out of 44 engaged, including 15 of 15 for USS Hornet's Torpedo Squadron 8 (Ensign Gay was the only survivor of the 45 men).
Hellcats were upengined Wildcats; and formed the backbone of American Carrier aviation from 1943 to the end of the war. While the Corsair was a better plane, it had problems for carrier operation (a tendency to pull toward the right when accelerating, meaning it tended to head toward the carrier's superstructer when waved off) and wasn't used from flight decks until late in the war; but the land based Marines used them with great effect (Pappy Boyington's VMF-214 "Black Sheep" being the most famous). But I digress.
The Hellcat shown crashing into the ocean was one INTENTIONALLY crashed; for training/experimental purposes they wanted to crash a plane into the ocean with cameras running to watch what happened so they could train pilots better for emergency landings.

And finally, a pendant's note on carrier designations...

Yorktown was CV-5; sunk at Midway. The new Yorktown was CV-10 until long after the war. After the war, as aircraft became bigger and jet propelled, it was decided that the old carriers would be adapted to anti submarine warfare and were redesignated CVS. One carrier was relagated to training as a auxiliary and designated AVT.

Now, what do these letters mean?

The first letter, "c", stands for 'Cruiser'. Aircraft Carriers were first seen as being scouts and raiders, which was the mission of the Cruiser.
The second letter, "v", stands for Aviation. "Why not use "a" for aviation" I hear you cry... well, "a" was already in use for Cruisers as CA, which is "Armored Cruiser" (later Heavy Cruiser). By Navy Logic, you couldn't bump the known to be useful Armored Cruisers out of thier designation for the Johnny come lately Aircraft Carriers, so... and by the time the Carriers had become more important than Cruisers, the designation had been set.

You have just been treated to a post from the Chinese Philosopher Historian, Ahn Two Lahng.

[MrSandman]

63. I thought I saw a "10" on the flight deck...

in the movie and other historical file clips. BTW, the pilto walked away from the separated aircraft(Which looked like the F6F).

On Gay's plane, I remember a Vindicator on takeoff; Dauntless during attack; an Avenger while on fire; and finally a ditching Hellcat.

Ed, fer spellin...s

[HawkerHurricane]

65. Now I have to watch it again...

Where's my popcorn.

[MrSandman]

70. See post #69...

I replied to the wrong post.

[MrSandman]

69. PM me with what you see on Gay's flight...

I am not as proficient on the WWII naval attack aircraft identification as I might be.

[deadparrot]

9. here goes

MP, "Holy Grail"
MP, "Life of Brian"
The Godfather
Primary Colors
The Goodbye Girl

[rawtribe]

10. OK

The Lost Boys
The Wolves of Kromer
Green Fingers
The White Dawn
Latter Days

[terrya]

12. Mine:

1) "The Lion in Winter"

2) "The Manchurian Candidate"...the orginial.

3) "Some Like it Hot"

4) "The Bandwagon"

5) "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"

[skygazer]

13. After much thought

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Casablanca

The Wall (Pink Floyd)

Blazing Saddles

12 Monkeys

[maveric]

14. Here ya go

1. Goodfellas
2. Blazing Saddles
3. Silence of the Lambs
4. Young Frankenstein
5. Dogma

[sundog]

15. umm...

2001
Jaws
Halloween
Hedwig & the Angry Inch
Dogville

[sundog]

62. I have to revise this...

after some meditation on the subject...

2001
Hedwig & the Angry Inch
Nights of Cabiria
Vertigo
Halloween

[AgadorSparticus]

16. in no particular order:

Contact
The Birdcage
ROTK Trilogy
Ghandi
Best In Show

[bikebloke]

17. Ignore Honourable Mentions to stay on topic

Casablanca
Amelie
The Great Escape
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Errol Flynn)
Lawrence of Arabia

Honourable mentions:
Jean de Florette & Manon de Source
Lola Rente
Gallipoli
Grapes of Wrath
Mutiny on the Bounty (Gable/Laughton)
Hair

[Deja Q]

18. Star Trek II, Death Becomes Her, Airplane!, For Your Eyes Only, and

Licence to Kill.

In no particular order, of course!

[theemu]

19. current top 5

1. Breathless (1960, Godard)
2. A Woman Under the Influence (1972, Cassavetes)
3. The Page of Madness (1926, Kinugasa)
4. Nights of Cabiria (1957, Fellini)
5. Johnny Guitar (1954, Ray)

[sundog]

20. Nights of Cabiria is a great, great movie...

I actually should have included it in my top 5.

It has everything to say about life - sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic... but Sweet Charity really, really sucked in a bad way.

[Zensea]

75. sounds a lot like my taste

I'd go with

8 1/2 -- Fellini
Weekend -- Godard
Love Streams -- Cassavetes
Once Upon a Time in the West -- Leone
In Praise of Love -- Godard

today anyway. I don't own many DVD's or videos so I figure the ones I own, there must be a reason for it. That's how I decided on this list.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

22. Without thinking too long & hard

It's a Wonderful Life
Breakfast at Tiffany's
A Clockwork Orange
Annie Hall
Clerks

[grace0418]

23. Oh couldn't pick five definitively

I have a running list of about 50 favorites. Here are five examples but are not necessarily THE five favorites:

Cinema Paradiso
Moonstruck
Babe
Amelie
Best in Show

[Ron Green]

24. My five (this week, at least)...

Lone Star
The Bicycle Thief
The Last Waltz
Sunset Boulevard
Chicago

[ThoughtCriminal]

25. Freeper Top 5

Let me guess

1. Red Dawn
2. Birth of a Nation
3. Red Dawn
4. Red Dawn
5. Gone With the Wind

[NightTrain]

30. Also: "Rocky IV," "Rambo," "Smokey & The Bandit," and "Forrest Gump."

[AngryAmish]

43. You forgot Red Dawn

[ThoughtCriminal]

46. I also forgot

The Green Berets
The Ten Commandments
The Fountainhead
Triumph of the Will

[AngryAmish]

47. Plus Red Dawn

[ThoughtCriminal]

53. And Rambo III

The one where he helps Osama Bin Laden kick Soviet ass.

[daddybear]

26. Imitation of Life

tops the list of faves of all time...
then (in no order)
Green Mile
Magnificent Obsession
It's a Wonderful Life
I'll Cry Tomorrow

[AlCzervik]

27. My top 5

To Kill a Mockingbird
All about Eve
The Machurian Candidate-original
Stalag 17
Goodfellas

[Joe Chi Minh]

28. ....

For a Few Dollars More
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Big Lebowski
Yojimbo
All Quiet on the Western Front.
A 6th, which I've just seen: Erin Bronkovitz

[NightTrain]

29. Off the top of my head....

...and listed alphabetically:

DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (1990)
LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (1962)
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)

[CarolynEC]

31. Little Big Man, West Side Story, Brazil, The Grapes of Wrath, Willie Wonka

[DemWitch]

32. No particular order

Titanic
Practical Magic
Sleepy Hollow
Braveheart
Ice Age

Honorable Mentions

Finding Nemo
Cats and Dogs
The Contender
The Patriot
Hocus Pocus

[LiviaOlivia]

33. Currently

The Red Shoes
Network
The Lion in the Winter
Spirited Away
Black Narcissus

[Tracer]

34. I've been around a long time and ...

... I have to rate movies over a lifetime Ñ and the results are:

1. Bridge on the River Kwai
2. On the Waterfront
3. La Dolce Vita
4. The Godfather (the whole series)
5. The African Queen

[peacefreak]

35. Only five?

Witches of Eastwick
American President
The Color Purple
Antonia's Line
Drop Dead Gorgeous
(& Office Space as special runner-up)

[MrSandman]

36. In no real order...

Casablanca
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Trouble with Harry
The Sand Pebbles

[Princess Turandot]

38. hmm..

Godfather I
Godfather II
Shawshank Redemption (despite my dislike of Robbins' acting in general)
Silence of the Lambs
The Verdict

I have to give honorable mention to ConAir, which intentionally or not, is a movie I find to be hilarious.

[CornField]

39. Since no one actually knows me... LOL!

A Christmas Story
(In the heat of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenity, that as far as we know, is still hanging in space over lake Michigan.)

Better Off Dead
(That's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy, like that.)

Star Trek: The Voyage Home
(Your use of language has altered since our arrival. It is currently laced with, shall we say, more colorful metaphors, "double dumb-ass on you" and so forth.)

Willy Wonka
(The suspense is terrible . . . I hope it'll last.)

The Goonies
(Chunk: But the worst thing I ever done -- I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa -- and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life. --- Jake Fratelli: I'm beginning to like this kid, Ma!)

[CornField]

40. You know, it'd be easier to pick my 5 favs by genre. ;-)

[Lizzie Borden]

42. um...

Nicholas and Alexandria
Wizard of Oz
Gone with the Wind
JFK
West Side Story

[PittPoliSci]

44. here goes:

Shaun of the Dead
LotR trilogy (I'm only counting this as one)
Ocean's 11
28 Days Later
Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail

[BlackVelvetElvis]

45. Mine:

In no particular order:
This is Spinal Tap
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
The Wind
Kitten With a Whip (for it's camp value)

[warrens]

50. OK, I'll play

Betty Blue

Drugstore Cowboy

Donny Darko

A Clockwork Orange

Manon of the Spring

[sandnsea]

52. Well let's see

BEST 5...
The Usual Suspects
To Kill A Mockingbird
Psycho
Rainman
The Godfather 1

Oh somebody said Color Purple and Shawshank, those might replace Godfather and Psycho on my list. Tough calls. Lots of great movies!

Watch over and over...

It's A Wonderful Life
Yours, Mine and Ours
Operation Petticoat
The Way West
Pretty Woman
Rear Window, anything by Hitchcock
Shenandoah

Too many to list

[tedoll78]

54. Here goes nothin'..

1) The Back to the Future Series (I list them as one story.. sorry..)
2) Breakfast at Tiffany's: Imagine a grown man crying like a baby. Such a good movie!
3) Trainspotting: just an overall weird/wild/fun movie. That baby still freaks me out, no matter how fake he may look..
4) War of the Worlds: can you hear the Martians firing their fire beams? I can.
5) The Royal Tenenbaums: when you ask for a great ensemble cast, I point to this.

[Tom Kitten]

55. It's hard to list just five...

But here goes, at least for now...

La Strada
The Apartment
3 Women
The Exterminating Angel
Wild Strawberries

[mairceridwen]

57. hmmm...

1. The Big Lebowski (of course)
2. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samauri
3. The Royal Tenenbaums
4. Scarface
5. the boondock saints

[Z_I_Peevey]

58. My top three are easy, the next two not so much.

1. Groundhog Day
2. Baraka
3. Nell (yes, I know many folks think it is cheesy, but the location shots remind me so much of my hillbilly pedigree. Love those mountains).

4. A.I.
5. Romeo and Juliet (Franco Zeffirelli's).

[JohnKleeb]

in no particular order

WWII in Color (Just one of the most touching documentaries Ive seen)
Band of Brothers (yes, its a mini series and if it dont qualify, then Saving Private Ryan)
Green Mile (Turned me against death penalty)
Goodfellas (Just a classic gangstar film)
F-911 (it was great and moving)

[JohnKleeb]

60. dupa

[ikojo]

61. My current top five movies I could watch over and over

again..

Liberty Heights: Adrien Brody...yum, yum!
Fiddler on the Roof
LOTR: Fellowship
LOTR: ROTK
Grapes of Wrath: A movie that if made today would have a completely different message.

[Joe Chi Minh]

64. I forgot

a few other films I really enjoyed:

Jackie Brown. (I couldn't take my eyes off Pam Grier throughout the film. Every facial expression of hers and her whole demeanour fitted the situation exactly. She really did seem to be living it, rather than acting).

I've never been one for love stories, but that is what the film turned out to be, as much as a thriler, and for once I was drawn in. I mean I can't say "I love you" to my wife. It just sounds crazy to me. Like saying I think concentration camps are bad/cruel/satanic, etc. So obvious. What's the point? I couldn't say it without feeling so manifestly foolish it would defeat the purpose.

Get Shorty. Hilarious. Even some of the most violent scenes, because you knew it was a film.

Buffet Froid. A French film with Gerard Depardieu and a beautiful, young, female psycho who stalked him.

And yes, Band of Brothers was great.

For TV documentaries, one on Watergate on a cable channel, with some utterly hilarious commentaries by most of the surviving main players, was also utterly absorbing.

Some TV plays of Mike Lee.

[Ilsa]

66. Fantasy, Love stories, Grit...

Lord of the Rings trilogy
Jackie Brown
Love Actually
Sense and Sensibility
Lonesome Dove (the TV mini-series from late 1980's with Robert Duvall)
To Kill a Mockingbird

[TheCentepedeShoes]

67. Okay, the ones I try not to miss . . .

1 - Hud - filmed near here when I was in JHS
2 - The April Fools - in '68 some people said I looked like Deneuve (yeah, right!)
3 - Dr. Strangelove - cracks me up every time ("You can't fight in here, this is the war room!!)
4 - Pink Panther - like the style, the European settings.
5 - Lion in Winter - the 'pede's wacky ancestors, foreteller of things to come.
6. - Breakfast at Tiffany's (am I breaking the rules to have 6?) - bawl like a baby when Holly goes looking for Cat.
7 - Thomas Crown Affair (the original - now I've got 7) - had a BF who looked like Steve McQueen (why didn't I hang on to him ??)

[VOX]

68. Five is an awfully small number when you're talking favorites...

But in keeping with with the rules, and in no order:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The General
The Magnificent Ambersons
Breaker Morant
The Third Man

Ignoring the rules, I'll add:
Local Hero
Far From the Madding Crowd
Sons of the Desert
White Heat
Casablanca

And I'll leave it at that. :)

[RedG1]

71. top 5 fave movies...

Vertigo
Steel Magnolias
Moon Over Parador
Shawshank Redemption
Moonstruck

[Bossy Monkey]

72. Casablanca, Rear Window, Miller's Crossing, The Bad Seed aaaaaaaand...

No Time for Sergeants

no, They Live

no, No Time for Sergeants

I dunno, obviously I'm not the biggest cinephile.

[Nightowl_2004]

73. Mine, in no particular order, would be....

1) The Longest Day
A Stunning and almost completely true epic that gives you an in depth look at what could possibly be the most important 24 hours in history! Everything about it, from the scene of paratroopers descending into Saint Mere Eglise to the Ranger's attack on Point du Hoc shows the determination, bravery and spirit of the thousands of men who fought that day.

2) Ocean's Eleven
For some reason, I really enjoyed this film. It had an excellent story (IMHO) and a truly awesome twist. The acting was great (no surprise, it could not have been a more star studded cast if they tried) and it was an all around enjoyable movie.

3) Rat Race
I first saw this movie at my town's drive-in (yes, we actually have one!) which always plays 2 films. I remember that we were excited to see the other one and were just going to check out Rat Race...I don't even remember what the other one was. We were in stitches all through the Rat Race, It is one of the most insanely funny movies I have ever seen.

4) Miracle
Call me crazy but I really liked this movie. My mom was at the actual game when it really did happen and has always talked euphorically about how amazing it was. So when they came out with the movie, she dragged us all with her to see it on the first day. I've never seen a movie where I knew what was going to happen but the whole time I was on the edge of my seat (I was literally sitting there, on the edge of my seat, hands clapped on my face muttering "come on, come on...just a little bit longer" in the last minute or two of the USSR Game when I realized I already knew that we were going to win, It was like I was watching the game live.)

5) Sum of All Fears
I loved the book and enjoy Clancy Novels somewhat so I was excited to see this movie. They changed around a lot of it, so I didn't have high hopes but I was thoroughly surprised to REALLY enjoy it when I saw it on my birthday. Ben Affleck was great as Jack Ryan, Bridget Moynahan played an equally awesome Cathy and Morgan Freeman practically stole the show. An all around Good flick (surprisingly)

[Alleycat]

74. No Order

1-Jaws
2-Out of Africa
3-Contact
4-Goodfellas
5-Red Rock West
6-Fargo

OK there are six but I couldn't decide.

[Mz Pip]

76. Mostly oldies

Forbidden Planet
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Casablanca
To Have and Have Not
Raiders of the Lost Ark

I've watched these many times and always enjoy them.

MzPip
:dem:

[Jean Louise Finch]

77. hmmm...

In no particular order, and without a great deal of pondering:

Waking the Dead
Pieces of April
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Say Anything
and yes, To Kill a Mockingbird

[TrustingDog]

78. Coen Bros. get 2 on my list

The Big Libowski
O Brother Where Art Thou
Amadeus
The Gods Must be Crazy
Harold and Maude

[philosophie_en_rose]

79. For Entertainment Purposes...

1) South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut - Like a Broadway Show without the boring. :)
2) Breakfast at Tiffany's - I just love this movie. Audrey Hepburn at her best.
3) LOTR Series - pathos, gorgeous men, epic fantasy - *swoon*
4) Rocky Horror Picture Show - Don't dream it; be it. :P
5) The Princess Bride - I can't believe it came out when I was only 7. It's timeless.