Movies and movie recs or "What do you mean you haven't seen that?"

[skieswideopen]

I'm interrupting hometown month to talk movies. And movie recs. With summer blockbuster more or less upon us, it seems like an appropriate time.

1. What do you look for in a movie?/What kinds of movies do you like?
2. Do you have a favourite movie or three? (I'm using random numbers here. Feel free to talk about as many movies as you like. Or as few.)
3. What movies had the biggest impact on you?
4. Do you have any movies that you indiscriminately rec to everyone or think everyone should see at least once? (Could be the same as or different from #1 or #2. Totally up to you. Elaboration is encouraged.)



*Or winter blockbuster season, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere.

Comments

[naushika]

MOVIESSSS!

1. My fave genre of movie is science fiction! I love all sorts of scifi but I especially love deep/thinky/"quiet" types of scifi movies (though there's a big place in my heart for action/adventure/SPACE-BATTLE-FILLED scifi too). After that I love psychological thrillers, action/adventures, and dramas. Some comedy.

2. I HAVE ABOUT 8 MILLION FAVORITE MOVIES. But to keep it brief: The Shawshank Redemption, 28 Days Later, Moon, Sunshine, Galaxy Quest, Office Space, The Fifth Element, Kick-Ass, Signs, Contact, Aliens 1 & 2, Terminator 1 & 2, V for Vendetta, Jurassic Park, Children of Men, and all of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

3. The Shawshank Redemption, which is my faveee movie of all time. It's such a wonderful story about, well, redemption, and also friendship. And also carries a message about living life for today. "Get busy living, or get busy dying." A creedo I like to live by. :)

4. Oh gosh this is tough. I'd say:

Contact - Space travel, politics, female protagonist, no gore, minimal violence, based on a Carl Sagan book. You really can't go wrong with this film and I feel like everyone would like it!

O Brother, Where Art Thou? - historical, quirky, funny, has heart and good music.

Safety Not Guaranteed - A romantic comedy for people who don't like romantic comedies (like me!), quirky, funny, sweet.

The Adjustment Bureau - Good old fashioned scifi action/thriller. :D

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Also known as "the one with the whales." The most broad-appeal Star Trek, very humorous, and anybody can get to know the ToS crew through this movie.

Moon - Probably the epitome of "scifi movie" for me. Sam Rockwell is ah-mayyyyyy-zing.

[colls]

Moon is on my to-watch list because I think you've talked about it before.

O Brother!!! ♥

[lightbird]

I love O Brother, Where Art Thou.

I've enjoyed all of the Coen Brothers movies that I've seen.

[skieswideopen]

YES, thinky science fiction.

The Shawshank Redemption was fantastic. One of my all-time favourite movies.

I should look up Moon.

[everythingshiny]

MCUUUUUUUUUUU

[mfirefly10]

Some excellent choices here - 28 Days Later, Galaxy Quest, Contact, Aliens 1 & 2

I also really loved Safety Not Guaranteed.

[everythingshiny]

1. What do you look for in a movie?/What kinds of movies do you like?
I love trailers. I REALLY LOVE TRAILERS OK i like that they make me excited about just about any movie really. I think the only common denominator is that movies are reasonably fast-paced. Slow movies bore me. I don't care how ~poignant they are or whatever

2. Do you have a favourite movie or three?
Star trek 2009, Avengers/MCU, Push, The Losers, Love Actually, Stardust, Gone in 60 Seconds, RED, Practical Magic...i don't have ONE in particular that stands out, to be honest i'm pretty easy to please. I don't like suspense or scary movies.

3. What movies had the biggest impact on you?
A League of their own, The Mask & Cry Baby (don't even ask, to be honest :D)

4. Do you have any movies that you indiscriminately rec to everyone or think everyone should see at least once? hmmmm no? I really think it depends on the person. I think Avengers should be liked by everyone though.

[skieswideopen]

I kind of secretly adore Love Actually. It was just so sweet.

[colls]

A League of Their Own!!! <333
I love Gina Davis movies.

There were some really great festivids for that movie this year:
va va voom
back to avalon
revolution

(rec'ing vids is like a sickness with me...)

[naushika]

Haha we have strangely opposite taste in movies. I LOVE SLOW POIGNANT MOVIES. The Losers is awesome though.

[mfirefly10]

I have a love/hate relationship with trailers. Sometimes they can be VERY misleading as to what a movie is really about. I remember the trailer for Stepmom burned me because I thought it would be this cute, funny movie and it ended up being incredibly emotional.


Was Cry Baby that weird singing movie with Johnny Depp? I remember one of my friends was obsessed with that movie but I don't remember having an opinion of it beyond thinking it was a bit odd. A League of Their Own is awesome :)

[skieswideopen]

1. I adore thoughtful science fiction. World building, exploring ideas...that kind of thing. But I also love unapologetic action flicks, spy movies, and the occasional clever romantic comedy. I'm less fond of horror and I don't watch a lot of Westerns. Mostly I enjoy movies that make me feel something (besides fear, horror, or dread. Or boredom.)

2. A semi-random selection in no particular order: The Hanging Garden, Spy Game, The Lord of the Rings, L.A. Confidential, Sneakers, The Bourne Identity, Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, First Contact, The Return of the Jedi, Terminator 2, The Sweet Hereafter, Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Maltese Falcon. I'm sure I'll be kicking myself an hour from now when I realize I left something off.

3. The Search for Spock and Return of the Jedi, which are the first two movies I remember seeing and probably helped tip me toward my love of science fiction. (Although the fact that those are the movies my father chose to take me too--and everything that says about him--may have had something to do with it as well.) Also Terminator 2, the first action movie I remember seeing where the female lead actually did something besides allow the gun to be yanked out of her hands. I love Aliens for the same reason.

4. Still thinking about this... Casablanca, maybe. If only because it's referenced so often.

[colls]

SPIES!

I randomly just dropped Sneakers into my netflix queue the other day because I was feeling nostalgic.

Linda Hamilton was so badass in Terminator 2, ditto for Sigourney in Aliens. Both made female action stars possible and I'm sad there've been so few since that are of their caliber.

[lightbird]

L.A. Confidential is great. I like The Maltese Falcon too.

I love Search for Spock, even a little better than The Voyage Home actually (though that one is great, and I love Catherine Hicks in it - "see you around the galaxy", lol).

[everythingshiny]

lol SCIFI FOR EVERYONE

[naushika]

*taking notes* You've watched a lot of movies I haven't. I haven't heard of some of those!

Terminator 2 and Aliens were both so good. I watched them both as a youngster too and was like wow these ladies are awesome. Definitely I can blame my penchant for kick-butt ladies on those two.

[colls]

1. What do you look for in a movie?/What kinds of movies do you like?
Mostly entertainment. I want to be told a story - sometimes I like the cliched ones with common themes (yay! action films), sometimes I like the dramatic ones, sometimes the thinky ones, I like to laugh. Usually I like action, mystery and scifi though. Sometimes I'll tear up over a sports movie though. don't look at me like that
OVERCOMING ODDS. THE UNDERDOG WINS.
everyone likes a good story, right!?

2. Do you have a favourite movie or three?
HAN SOLO Have an eclectic list of stuff I really like:
Zombieland, The Losers, Mystery Alaska, Thelma & Louise, Tommy Boy, Crash, Book of Eli, Spaceballs, Tank Girl, Trouble with the Curve, Wall-E, Pitch Black

3. What movies had the biggest impact on you?
Is this a trick question?
*cough*Star Wars*cough*


4. Do you have any movies that you indiscriminately rec to everyone or think everyone should see at least once?
Star Wars Original Trilogy (forever on this list) because it has so many common themes and story elements and is fun!
The Breakfast Club and Top Gun for 80's nostalgia

[skieswideopen]

Couldn't have predicted these answers at all.

ALL of the Star Wars movies, though? Or just the originals? *hopes fervently that the new one is good*

TOP GUN! I agree with you on 80s nostalgia. As you know.

ETA: Was Book of Eli good, then? I remember the trailers, but never watched it.

[everythingshiny]

oh i really liked trouble with the curve. i really like sports movies, actually. its good times.

:D

[naushika]

Those are some good movies! :D I looooved Book of Eli.

[lightbird]

Thelma & Louise is fantastic. I love both those actresses, and the rest of the cast was great.

Wall-E made me weep.

[lightbird]

1. What do you look for in a movie?/What kinds of movies do you like? I'm a huge movie buff and like almost everything if it's done well. What I look for really runs the gamut but I particularly love quirky, off-beat movies and movies that focus on all the different kinds of relationships between people (although I do enjoy action films, too). I like films that make me think, classic films, indie flicks, foreign films, humor, drama, action, suspense. I love movies with screenplays written by excellent writers and I really appreciate fine performances by the actors and actresses; sometimes even if a movie isn't that great I can love it just because of the performances by the people in it.

2. Do you have a favourite movie or three? It's hard to narrow it down but off the top of my head: Classics Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and All About Eve. Three of the best screenplays to come out of Hollywood, amazing actors and actresses. I also love Casablanca. More recent but still old (1980's/1990's) movies I love are She's Gotta Have It (love this movie so much), Local Hero, Mystery Train and Stranger Than Paradise (I'm a big Jim Jarmusch fan). For more recent stuff, I adored Moonrise Kingdom, The Intouchables and Waiting for Sugar Man.

3. What movies had the biggest impact on you? The Survivors, with Walter Matthau and Robin Williams. I haven't seen it in a while and it wouldn't surprise me if I hated it upon revisiting it, but there was something about this movie that really impacted me at the time I saw it.

4. Do you have any movies that you indiscriminately rec to everyone or think everyone should see at least once? Without a doubt Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity and All About Eve. These 3 films are brilliant and are not to be missed. All of the ones I named as favorites actually, lol. I would also recommend Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, and of course his Rear Window and Vertigo.

[skieswideopen]

*starts making a list of movies to watch*

[mfirefly10]

1. I'm not overly particular about movies? If it entertains me, that's good enough. That being said, I have a weakness for sci-fi and movies with multiple female protagonists. Sadly, there aren't a ton of scifi movies with multiple women :(


2. Do you have all day? :)
The Notebook, Serenity, Star Trek 2009, The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect, the Resident Evil franchise, Love Actually, Imagine Me and You, Garden State, Empire Records


3. Wow, that's a really hard question...I blame Scream for my love of horror movies, as it's the first one I saw when I was about...12? I went on a horror movie kick after that but I haven't liked that many that have come out in recent years. Practical Magic and A League of Their Own spoiled me for movies with multiple female leads and I wish we had more of those. And Lost and Delirious got me interested in lesbian-themed movies back when I was still figuring out my own sexuality, though I probably wouldn't rec that one to anybody, as it's not very pleasant.


4. Not really. I find that I'm not terribly great in predicting what other people will like so unless they specially ask for recs or we're already talking about movies, I probably won't bring any particular movie up. Also...I'm not a huge fan of a lot of 'classic' movies so after having certain movies recommended as films EVERYONE HAD to see, I don't really trust recs like that.

[lightbird]

Sadly, there aren't a ton of scifi movies with multiple women :(

Yeah, in general there aren't a ton of movies with multiple women, and the ones that do get made are often just...problematic, for lack of a better word.

Pariah was very good and has multiple women in prominent roles. It was a small indie film that played last year at the Sundance festival and then in theaters, but very limited number of cities and not for very long. I forgot to include in my post as a rec, but it's another one I recommend. It's a drama, very emotional and heartbreaking at times, about a young woman who is a lesbian and has come out to her friends but not her family (though her family suspects and they are already having different reactions). Adepero Oduye the young actress who stars is terrific, as is the rest of the cast of young newcomers and seasoned actors and actresses (Kim Wayans plays her mom).

[atelierlune]

1. A world/plot/characters that I can come back to again and again and again. I watch a lot of foreign dramas. I don't know if it means anything in particular; I probably can't recognize hipsters and creeps in a culture outside my own and that's the only reason why I privilege the independent cinema of other countries over my own.

2. The Scent of Green Papaya, Clue, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

3. Donnie Darko hit my sister and I like a ton of bricks when we first watched it. Like, we literally had to pause at a couple of different points to discuss what the h was going on and if we wanted to continue.

If you've ever wondered what it would feel like to have your head punctured and all of the vitality drained from your body, watching The End of Evangelion movie is like that. Warning: If you are in the middle of finals, skip this.

4. Not really. My taste is really spare when it comes to movies to begin with and people ignore me when I rec things to them. Despite this, everyone should see Hirokazu Kore-eda's After Life. It's on Netflix. Go.

[skieswideopen]

After Life is a great movie! Sadly, it's not available on Netflix Canada.

It's been so long since I watched Evangelion...I'm not sure I ever saw the movie. I definitely don't remember the ending.

[brisus]

1. What do you look for in a movie?/What kinds of movies do you like?
Storyline usually and something in a genre I like. I love thrillers, comedy, romantic, and action/drama.

2. Do you have a favourite movie or three? (I'm using random numbers here. Feel free to talk about as many movies as you like. Or as few.)
I love Super Troopers (comedy), Flatliners (Thriller?), and all the Batman movies, old and new (with the exception of the old George Clooney one; he didn't deserved the awesome title of being Batman and did a crap job.)

3. What movies had the biggest impact on you?
Hmm, I couldn't tell you. I kinda just watch them from a pure entertainment perspective.

4. Do you have any movies that you indiscriminately rec to everyone or think everyone should see at least once? (Could be the same as or different from #1 or #2. Totally up to you. Elaboration is encouraged.)
Hmm, I'd recommend Batman: The Dark Knight (b/c it is pure awesome with great acting and action) and Passion of the Christ (Gives you a taste of what Jesus went through... heartbreaking).