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Favorite Movies


Maximius

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I thought it might be interesting to start a discussion of favorite movies of the list's members. I'm always on the lookout for good film, my tastes range from hardcore arthouse surrealism to action ala Bronson, Eastwood, etc. Plus its slow at work and Im bored out of my fucking skull, a compelling reason in and of itself.

 

I think the video game and film genre's share a lot of common traits and it may be valuable for us a future DM level authors to discuss these similarities and the differences as well. To my thinking, a good map is a happy mix of gameplay, immersion, and solid storytelling.

 

So here are some of my favorites. Not necessarily in order of preference....

 

1. Rikyu, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara : One of the best movies ever made, absolutely beautiful, powerful, one gesture in a scene conveys a thousand words. Must be viewed at least 4 times to BEGIN to be appreciated, to my thinking one of the hallmark of truly great filmmaking.

Its the story of Rikyu, the 16th century Japanese tea ceremony master, and his struggle to remain true to his ideals while working in the court of Hideyoshi, one of Japans most (in)famous rulers. Prepare yourself, its long, nothing seems to happen, but slowly the film works its way into your mind and won't let go.

 

2. Andrei Rublev, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky: The story of a 10 or 11th century Russian monk/icon painter and his struggles to remain faithful while living in a world of horror and bloodshed. Incredible cinematography, the taking of a Russian town by a combined Russian/Mongol invasion force is horrible and fascinating at the same time. Any thing by Tarkovsky is generally damned good, but this is one of my favorites.

 

Gotta run, boss released us early, yay!

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Alien/ Aliens / Alien 3

Dawn of the Dead ( Remake )

Resident Evil ( the first one )

Lord of the Rings trilogy

Terminator 1/2

Robocop

Total Recall

Batman/Batman Returns

Minority Report

The Cube

Kill Bill Vol. 2

Friday 13th Part V-VIII

Memento

O Brother where art thou

Eraserhead

Mulholland Drive

Resevoir Dogs

 

There's loads more, but that'll do for now.

Edited by elusive
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I'm never sure if you mean 'which are your favourite movies' or 'which movies do you think are the best', because for me, the two lists are not the same.

While I acknowledge that movies like Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind are technically and artistically great movies, I don't enjoy watching them. I'd rather watch a Laurel and Hardy or Marx Bros. movie.

Probably the only old B&W non-comedy movie I like is 12 Angry Men, which is great.

I generally enjoy the modern sci-fi genre as well.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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Hmmm, lets see. Some of my all time favorites.

 

In no particular order.

 

Clockwork Orange

Dr. Strangelove

Being There

The Committments

Falling Down

Amelie

Bubba HoTep

Throw Mama From the Train

A Shot in the Dark

The Pink Panther Strikes Again

 

Almost forgot...

 

Strangers on a Train

 

Likely not the absolute best on my list but the only ones that come to mind at the moment.

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Anyone here ever heard of "The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb?" Its an animated piece, a post apocalyptic retelling of the fairytale. Its "pixilated", meaning the human characters are tweaked to look like the clay characters in terms of movement and speech. Its bizarre but its really good too, the scenes in the government laboratory will make you hair stand on end.

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Hmm a sample of movies I like, in no particular order:

 

The Emperor and the Assassin

Pitch Black

The Chronicles of Riddick

Predator

Hero

Delicatessen

The City Of Lost Children

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

Enemy Mine

Event Horizon

The Dark City

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Enter The Dragon

Big Trouble in Little China

Conan The Barbarian

Conan The Destroyer

Red Sonia

The Last Samurai

Star Wars (particularly episodes III & V, in spite of the bad dialogue etc)

LOTR

The Cube

Kill Bill

Once Upon a Time in China

Saw

The Ring

The Grudge

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Pulp Fiction

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Some of favorites. Not in particular order:

 

Fight Club

Memento

Apocalypse Now Redux

LotR: Fellowship of the Ring

Saving Private Ryan

American Beauty

Pulp Fiction

Kill Bill vol 2

Old Boy

Donnie Darko

Hard Boiled

The Killer

Spirited Away

Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Grave of the Fireflies

Big Lebowski

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

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Spirited Away was absolutely incredible, I am going to have to check out some other stuff that guy has created.

 

I know this will not win me any friends here, but I really cant stand the Cohen brothers, the only movies I like of theirs is "Millers Crossing." I USED to like "Fargo", until I found out it wasnt really based on a true story as it claims in the beginning. To me that is an unforgiveable sin, they could easily found a kooky story of greed and stupidity in real life but instead they make one up and pretend it was real? CHEEEEESY!

 

 

Another animated piece I have is "Forbidden Planet", not the classic science fiction movie from the fifies. Its a French sci-fantasy cartoon from the late 60s/early 70s, real trippy and weird, the way I like it.

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Plan 9 from Outer Space - a classic.

A couple of under achieiving comedies I like are Planes, Trains and Automoblies and The Tall Guy - which was written by Richard Curtis, of Blackadder fame, before he want on to write blockbuster like Four Weddings.

My favourite genre is comedy, but to be honest, movies are blown away by the wealth of TV comedy the BBC has shown over the years here in the UK. I can't think of any comedy movies made in the last 50 years that really have had me in stitches apart from the Monty Python movies.

My favourite comedy of all time is the League of Gentlemen, a UK TV show, any of you who don't live in the UK should download it. If you like dark comedy and a weird disturbing freakshow with your laughs, then this is for you, and I guarantee it'll be nothing that you've seen before if you live in the US and have been brought up on a diet of 'Friends'. You can get the torrents from digitaldistractions for one. I pretty sure you couldn't buy the DVDs in most foreign countires. There are 3 series, 18 episodes in all.

Civillisation will not attain perfection until the last stone, from the last church, falls on the last priest.

- Emil Zola

 

character models site

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One of my favourite comedy shows was Blackadder... and Drop The Dead Donkey always had me in fits of laughter. I generally get bored with comedy movies, because it is very hard to sustain the laughs for the length of a movie - comedy movies usually die in the last hour, but there are a few good ones, like the Monty Python (Life Of Brian is my favourite of those). A half-hour TV comedy show is the best format to present comedy IMO...

 

I regard the Horror genre as comedy - there are very few that I find even remotely scary, but most of them either bore me to tears or make me piss myself laughing. Mostly because the premise of a typical horror movie is so ridiculous, the characters so stereotyped, and the plot so predictable that you would have to be of a pretty nervous disposition to be frightened by it. And since I am all for demons and monsters killing stupid American teenagers, I am usually on the bad guy's side, so I tend to get a bit of a giggle out of them. I like movies where the bad guy wins, I wish people made more movies like that, there aren't enough. Is anyone here actually scared or creeped out by horror movies, or do you usually find them either amusing or boring like me?

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A correction to my earlier post: Its Fantastic Planet, not Forbidden Planet.

 

Monty Python is a little played out for me. I loved them when I was younger but after 30 years of dorks doing off the cuff renditions of Python skits I cannot listen anymore. I will have to check out the League of Gentlemen though, sounds good.

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I agree most horror movies are crap. The majority made in the Imperial States of America are these stupid moralistic tales where a bunch of teenagers engage in some hanky-panky, either sex, drugs, or something similar and are summarily executed by the monster/psycho. The hero is almost always the character that is "good", the one who says "Hey guys its not a good idea to smoke pot and have group sex in this abandoned psychiatric hosptial thats rumored to be haunted." S/he will almost certainly be the only one left standing to confront the killer in the same formula, a long chase, some close calls, and finally a battle of wits out of which the hero emerges. And then, of course, the last second of the film lets you know that the evil is not really dead, its only waiting for a new chance to rise again. In the form of a sequel.

 

One exception to this was the Japanese flick "Dark Waters" about a haunted apartment complex in Tokyo. Its REALLY SPOOOOOOKY! I understand there is a version made in Hollywood but you wont catch me watching it. Some of the Exorcists and Omens 1, 2, & 73 had some scary moments but they cannot maintain it and they are suffused with Christian mysticism, something the world needs less of.

 

Another great movie is Tarkovskys "Stalker", its a sci-fi piece. I wont go on with the details of it but suffice it to say Tarkovsky achieves a higher state of immersion than the average Hollywood clunker with NO special effects other than some bullets flying and masterful dialogue/cinematography. the man was hardcore, he once reshot a scene for another movie something like 27 times, each time repainting the set and repositioning the actors until he felt the setting was perfect for the script. The care comes out in his films, each scene is like viewing a painting, sometimes I just stop the DVD and soak up the images for a few seconds.

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Concerning the "morality" that is one thing I'm pretty annoyed of in most children movies these days. Most movies seem to be coming from the US and displaying the american way of live as if it were the one and only salvation for everybody. I can understand that children movies display this stronger than others, but what is currently delivered is quite intrusive. I noticed a similar trait in other movies as well, one of the more extreme samples is War of The Worlds. Well, it will not be an example of good art anyway, so it might be expected, but this is really sickening. That's one reason I like Spongebob and consider it rather refreshing. Because it doesn't have this constant reminder "be nice, behave well, etc." and this typical Disney-everything-looks-the-same view. It's just fun to watch, which it should be. If I want to boost my morality I would go to church, and not watch movies.

Gerhard

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Concerning the "morality" that is one thing I'm pretty annoyed of in most children movies these days.

 

It is not just these days. I remember being read some enormously tedious story when I was about six, something about a girl losing her temper and falling out with her dad and then they make it up, or similar garbage. It was so imbued with axe-grinding moral messagery that I more or less switched off.

 

I cannot be the only one that has a violent aversion to being manipulated. If you want to teach a child something, why not just explain it to them?

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I'm personally annoyed by allegory, especially political ones. Such as the dribble I heard from some reviewers about how Episode 3 is a reflection of the Iraq War/war on terrorism and the patriot act in the US.

 

That reminds me of a painter I knew. He was painting just for the fun of it, but everytime, when he sells his pictures, he says there are always poeple who are talking with him about the "hidden meanings" and how proud they are that they managed to "discover" them. He said he usually laughs his head off because of what crap people interpret inot this. They can't take them as they are, there HAS to be some hidden meaning in there somehwhere. :)

Gerhard

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