I’m not a huge movie fan, but I want to broaden my horizons a bit. I’ll offer my list (that I’ve rewatched so many times I’m a bit tired of them):
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Young Poisoner’s Handbook
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Full Metal Jacket
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Life of Brian
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Holy Grail
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Sunset Boulevard
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Curse of the Golden Flower
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The Nightingale
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Downfall
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Amadeus
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Once Were Warriors
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Dusk to Dawn
- There Will be blood.
- No country for old men
- Sicario
- Anora
- Amadeus
- The Big Short
- Children of Men
- Collateral
- A Complete Unknown
- The Departed
- Djanjo Unchained
- Dune 1 & 2
- Ex Machina
- Fracture
- Gone Girl
- Good Time
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Her
- Heretic
- Hotel Rwanda
- The Killer
- The killing of a sacred deer
- Lord of War
- The Menu
- The Pianist
- Terminator 2
- Uncut Gems
- warfare
- Whiplash
Anything with Daniel Day-Lewis really. Or nothing by Aaron Sorkin. If bored and wanting to watch something familiar I like the Bourne (Jason) films.
Sicario is some quality action movie. Insanely good
Yeah it really is. Denis Villeneuve Is great.
I’ve updated my list now I’m home and can access my media server. If you’re interested in any you’ve not seen.
Out of everything you listed, I only watched Sicario, Terminator and Django Unchained lol. You won the right to suggest me my next movie! What it will be?
I wonder did you watch anything?
Yes. I tried to watch Whiplash, but just couldn’t lol. I didn’t make it past where the main character gets into the new band, and one overweight dude gets fired because he didn’t know if he was out of tune or not.
I just couldn’t relate to anything in this movie: i can’t stand people like the old bald psychopath, and I am not an “artsy person”
I also watched “No country for old men”. This one is actually very good movie, pretty dark imho, but I liked it! It’s refreshing to see “bad guys win”, instead of the usual sugar-coated scenario when the Good beats the Evil lol
Was planning to watch the other one you suggested soon
Hey I’m glad you actually took my recommendations.
Totally get that with Whiplash it’s a tough watch. Funnily I’m not that artsy myself I was more drawn to both Fletcher and Miles as I found them fascinating but understandable that it’s not for everybody.
Yeah I get what you mean about No Country for Old Men and how it’s not your typical the “the bad guy always wins” cliche; frankly to suggest that’s indicative of real life is kinda insulting from Hollywood lol.
Awesome. I hope I can make it 2/3 in my favour with There Will Be Blood.
Whilst I’m here I saw Warfare recently and thought it was amazing. Basically super realistic to war and less Hollywood. Not graphic realism so much, although a little gore, but more the mundane side of war and the complete chaos. Really fascinating.
Big Trouble in Little China
Tank Girl
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Princess Bride
Labyrinth
My thought process for this was asking myself what movie I’d recommend to people who have little to no experience or interest in specific genres. Tried to pick a wide range of movies
Comedies (my favorite genre)
- Kung Fu Hustle (probably favorite movie of all time): fun comedy action movie involving gangsters and a poor neighborhood. Think classic Hong Kong kung fu meets super hero movie. Haven’t met anyone who didn’t like the film
- Airplane: insanely funny movie with nonstop jokes. One of the best movies for comedy because you’ve got all types of jokes (puns, visual humor, recurring jokes etc)
- Blazing Saddles: revovles around a small western town through the perspective of a former slave turned sheriff. Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little have such great chemistry
- The Naked Gun trilogy: if you liked Airplane you’ll love the Naked Gun. Has a lot of ridiculously silly lines told with a straight face.
Action
- LOTR trilogy: I feel like this needs no explanation.
- Star Wars original trilogy: no hate to the prequels (and a lot of hate to the sequels) but nothing quite hits like the OG Star Wars trilogy
- The Mummy: fun, interesting plot, charming characters just the quintissential 90s action movie. Also a great first movie for many people’s bi-awakening 👀
- Police Story (trilogy, but mainly 3): it’s been a while since I’ve seen this trilogy but I distinctly remember really liking the third one because it features both Jackie Chan and Michel Yeoh as equal badasses. If you’ve never seen Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong films, this franchise is a great start.
Animation
- Spiderman Into The Spiderverse: beautifully animated movie that does an amazing job of capturing the feel comics in both style and vibes. Definitely way better than the sequel, in my opinion.
- Tokyo Godfathers: touching anime movie about 3 homeless people who ind a baby on Christmas. Don’t want to spoil any more than that but it has a good balance of comedy and drama and unlike other anime movies I’ve seen, completes the story so well that you’re not wanting more
- Up: my personal favorite Pixar movie and the first 20 min are a master class of short story telling. Was debating between this an Wall E but I think Up has a better story
Horror
Admittedly my least favorite genre. These movies are closer to thrillers than they are horror
- Train to Busan: zombie outbreak on a train. Premise is simple enough but the storytelling and characters are so well written that you get too attached and actually get anxiety when things are happening. It’s a movie with an ending that stays with you
- The Silence of the Lambs: there’s a reason Hannibal Lector is the most memorable part of this movie despite having only 16 minutes of screen time
Movies to watch only once
These are movies that will make you feel such intense emotions (usually sadness but not necessarily) that I would only watch once. No descriptions to avoid spoilers
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Schindler’s List
- Old Boy
I watched Blazing Saddles… Oh boy. I was not expecting the full-on racial slurs right from the beginning. I know it’s mocking racists but it was still a shock. I wouldn’t watch it again but it was a fun watch.
I’m glad you had fun watching it and thanks for the update! It’s my favorite Mel Brooks movie but can be jarring compared to how PC movies have become. But it is good that you realized all the slurs were coming from characters you’re not supposed to like.
I also watched Naked Gun (I think the one) and it was really funny. I’ll save the other Naked Guns for when I’m in the right mood, because they’re so over-the-top stupid - but very well done and funny. Maybe I’ll watch the anime one soon… I’ve wanted to get into anime for years but don’t know where to start. Maybe this is the one that gets the ball rolling…
Personally, I prefer anime shows to movies since they’re allowed more time to develop plot and characters. If you’ve ever played any Japanese games you’d know how convoluted the stories can be.
Based on your list of movies, you seem to like a good mix of comedies and tragedy/drama. Below are some shows I think you may like:
- One Punch Man (comedy/action): Saitama is the world’s strongest man and can defeat enemies with a single punch. This causes him to feel ennui with life.
- Erased (mystery/thriller): time travel murder mystery. Don’t want to say too much more. It’s really short (12 episodes) so it should be easy to finish quickly
- Death Note (mystery/thriller): another murder mystery with supernatural elements, this time involving what’s know as the the titular Death Note which can kill anyone who’s name is written inside. This and Fullmetal (below) are pretty much always recommended starter anime.
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (fantasy/adventure): Alchemist Brothers Edward and Alphonse travel the world looking for the Philosopher’s Stone in order to fix an alchemy disaster that left Alphonse’s soul trapped in armor. Make sure you watch Brotherhood first. There are two series of this franchise and the regular Fullmetal Alchemist does not follow the source manga all the way through since it caught up at a certain point.
- Hunter x Hunter (action/adventure): Gon hopes to become a powerful Hunter so he can find his father who left him as a child. Best story of all shonen (boy targeted) manga/anime imo. Only bad thing is that it was dropped before they could complete the series (from where the Manga continued). But the ending it has is also still satisfying.
- Asobi Asobase (slice of life comedy): follows three odd high school friends as they try to find ways past time. Absolutely ridiculous show with no plot, just a lot of really funny situations the girls get themselves into. One of my favorites is a punishment game where loser has to be slapped on the butt.
- Ouran High School Host Club: Haruhi is a working class student who enrolls in a high school for wealthy elites on scholarship. On her first day, she accidentally breaks an expensive vase at the famous all-male host club and now has to work there to pay them back. Only problem is, she’s a girl. Hilarity and hijinks ensue.
And if you don’t want to dedicate less time, here are some more good movie recommendations:
- A Silent Voice: moving film about the redemption of a former school bully to a deaf girl. It’s definitely an emotional roller coaster
- Grave of the Fireflies: I put this in my original list but did not specify that it was an anime movie. Only watch if you want to feel some intense emotions
- Spirited Away: there’s a reason this is the first anime movie to with an Oscar. It’s about a young girl who somehow becomes trapped in a magical fantasy world and has to find her parents and a way back home. Only reason I didn’t include it was cause I actually liked Tokyo Godfathers more. However, it’s definitely one of my favorite Ghibli films for sure.
- Your Name: supernatural movie in which a completely unrelated teenage boy and girl swap bodies. They have to figure out why this happens and how to fix it.
Just finished watching Tokyo Godfathers. It was really good! I’ll watch it again at Christmas!
Yay, I’m glad you enjoyed it! My brother and I watched it on a whim around Christmas and we both really liked it.
I watched season one of Rewrite, because I thought the Asian Kung Fu Generation song would be on it, but that was FMA as it turns out. I liked Rewrite though. I’m definitely going down an anime rabbit hole now!
