The Films I Recommend
I do get asked sometimes to recommend movies to people. That’s a really hard thing to do. Of course, I can recommend many films off the top of my head, but would they like them is entirely another matter. This list here is in the former spirit. I’ve considered several factors in recommending these specific movies for. I have all of them in my own collection. I like all of them very much myself. Many are quite unusual and not mainstream. Most of them are newer films (past decade or so) and they amount to a very round and straightforward number. Here are the 64 movies I believe everyone should see at least three times:
- 2046
- Abre Los Ojos
- American Psycho
- Avalon
- Battle Royale
- Blade Runner
- Brazil
- Crash
- Dark City
- Dekalog
- Dogma
- Donnie Darko
- Elizabethtown
- Equilibrium
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Fight Club
- Gattaca
- Godfather, The
- Great Expectations
- Heat
- Hero (Ying Xiong)
- History Boys, The
- Inconvenient Truth, An
- Interview with a Vampire
- Kingdom of Heaven
- Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
- Machinist, The
- Man on Fire
- Matrix, The
- Memento
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- Notting Hill
- Oldboy
- Pan’s Labyrinth
- Pay it forward
- Pitch Black
- Pulp Fiction
- Rashomon
- Requiem for a Dream
- Reservoir Dogs
- Revolver
- Ronin
- Scent of a Woman
- SE7EN
- Seven Samurai, The
- Serendipity
- Serenity
- Sin City
- Soylent Green
- Spartan
- Spirited Away
- Star Wars
- Strings
- Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
- Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
- Thank You For Smoking
- THX 1138
- To Kill A Mocking Bird
- Trois Couleurs
- Twelve Monkeys
- Unforgiven
- Usual Suspects, The
- V for Vendetta
I would be delighted to read your comments on these movies, and any recommendations you might have. Please share with me and the rest of the people (the 2 or 3 other people!) that might see this post and your comments.
What makes me think twice about this list is the number 64 (I would have gone for 53
).
BTW, I’ve seen almost half of these (some of them up to 4 or 5 times) and would admit that they are indeed among my best choices. And these are some real good ones which are not included in your list:
Saw, The Game, L.A. Confidential, The Shawshank Redemption, The Lord of the Rings, The Bourne *
Why is 53 better than 64? /:) Am I missing something here? And as you’ve probably noticed, my list consists of 18 films more than 64 (9 for the Dekalog, 2 for the Godfather, 5 for Star Wars and 2 for the Three Colors.) So the total number is 82, a really boring number. Of course, I can cheat and add the two Matrix sequels, but those were positively insignificant.
As for your suggestions, the Game and Shawshank Redemption are exceptional movies. And LotR trilogy is about the best adaptation from a cool book (or any other media, for that matter) I’ve ever seen. The Bourne trilogy is not bad at all as well, specially the first and last films. However, I don’t know what the attraction with L.A. Confidential is! I can’t say I like that movie beyond a very well-constructed and a well-played drama. As for Saw, although I’m not into “scary movies” much, I liked it. I’m happy that you didn’t mention the rest of the Saws! I haven’t seen Saw IV, but the other sequels were each one worse than the other.
But my recommendation list stays the same. Take Shawshank Redemption for example. It’s an exceptional movie. It’s #2 on the list of IMDb’s top 250. But anybody would recommend it. It’s not an unusual movie! It’s true that I have Godfather and Seven Samurai and some other very well reviewed films in this list, but all of them are there for some other reason than they being masterful creations.
salam. man be emaile yaserzt@yahoo.com mail zadam lotf konid ooono motale konid
پيشنهاد مي کنم براي شروع شما هم اين مطلب رو مطالعه کنيد.
I haven’t seen almost half of these movies, but among those that I’ve seen, I really appreciate “Scent of a Woman”, “Old Boy”, “The Usual Suspects” and “Twelve Moneys”. However if I was to prepare such a list, I would have included “Eyes Wide Shut”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Life is Beautiful”, as well.
Let me see, I haven’t seen “Rosemary’s Baby” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” (or I think I have seen the latter, but can’t remember anything except the actors.)
“Eyes Wide Shut” is too… “Kubriky”! That is too say, it’s a masterpiece, but it’s way too personal for the creator that I can’t feel any connection with it. Or maybe it’s just me!
“Life is Beautiful” is excellent! (Or should I have said “excellente!” or “Perfecto!” or something like that! However, everybody knows that it’s wonderful, there’s no need for me to say it! And there’s no personal reason for me to like it besides the fact that it’s an wonderful movie (but in case of, e.g. the Godfather, there is a personal reason.) That’s why I have included the Godfather, but not Life is Beautiful.
Well, since I don’t know you well(!), I can’t understand why you take “Serendipity” but not “French Kiss” or “Sleepless in Seattle” or even “You’ve Got Mail”?! Why? Why?
Besides, your list lack a few L’s (I think); “Lost in Translation” and “Love Actually”. Well maybe everybody goes for “Lost in Translation” … but who cares, it’s a great movie!
BTW, I like these movies too (I don’t have any similar weblog, so I thought “why not?!” I can write them here and since “obviously” you don’t have to agree with me (like the previous mentioned movies) and the fact that this is your blog, you can delete this post whenever you like):
- Pride and Prejudice
- Samurai trilogy (Actually it’s ONE movie divided to three chapters. Something like “Kill Bill”)
- Spanglish (Soft movie, nice music)
That was funny!
)
The fact is, I don’t like Meg Ryan that much. And I don’t know why! I mean, she is cute and even a decent actor (or actress if you prefer,) but I don’t like her! It seems that you do, though!
No, seriously, “Serendipity” is so important for me because it emphasizes the role of luck and the Random Number Gods in life. It is also a delightful romantic comedy! Of course, it maybe not lofty and grand, but I like it the way it is!
Your proposal about “Lost in Translation” is very tempting though. A simply complex (wow!) movie and one with exactly the kind of comedy I like, the almost non-existent kind! A serious story without any light humor in it, but with it’s fair share of comedy in the individual situations. However, I don’t know which one of the list I can throw out to include “Lost in Translation” in its stead.
“Love Actually” is absolutely hilarious. But it’s a bit… for lack of a better word, banal. There’s a load of originality in the story, and great situations and characters, but a love-conquers-all theme is hardly untouched!
How in the seven hells can you like “Pride and Prejudice”?! I know it’s a classic masterpiece and all that, but it’s full of snub-nosed, stuck up English people! Come on!
And I have to confess that I haven’t seen the Matsushita Miyamoto or whatever it was (the Samurai) yet.
I don’t even want to talk about Spanglish!