The Best Films Ever!

First topic message reminder :

Seeing as we have over-rated films, how about some of your all time favourites...

Layer Cake - Brilliant film, proper gangster flick, Gambon, Meaney, Craig all play their parts brilliantly.

Love, Honour & Obey - Another classic, such a great brit cast and some great performances from Jonny Lee Miller, Ray Winstone, Sadie Frost and Rhys Ifans.

My favorites in no particular order:

LOTR Trilogy
Avatar
Hot Fuzz
Spirited Away
Toy Story 3
Pirates of the Caribbean 1
Star Wars Original Trilogy
Babel
Donnie Darko
Black Swan
Wall-E
History of the World Part 1
Silent Movie
The Terminal
Bourne Trilogy
Goldeneye
Shaun of the Dead
Little Miss Sunshine

I think that'll do for now

Yes Gregers Hot Fuzz

hot fuzz was quality pegg and frost were quality in the film 'paul' as well that was quality

Shaun of the Dead is clearly better though, and I am looking forward to the final part of the triology. The 'green' one.

Totally agree with Hot Fuzz!

A few more to add to the ever-growing list:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
School of Rock
Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny
Around the World in 80 Days
Night at the Museum

I watched this film this afternoon its one I never heard of or seen before The Ox Bow Incident starring Henry Fonda and a very young Anthony Quinn, it's a western about the death of a popular rancher within the community. A mob/posse is formed to track down the killers. Three men are found, a vote is taken to hang them on some very dodgy evidence, one of the three has a wife and young family this character writes a letter to his wife, the letter is read out later in the film to great effect.
There is also a very good twist to the film.
Some of the characters are truely detestable due to their actions and the way they seem to value another person's life
A film on TV now 51st State Samual Jackson with a set of golf clubs, Robert Carlisle and Meatloaf

I vouch for 51st State, brilliant film. Robert Carlyle is great in it and anything Sammy L is always epic!

truman show

jfk

in the top 5

all 3 toy story films are very good

few military based ones

platoon
full metal jacket
saving private ryan
men of honour
apocalypse now

Sleepers

Quality film

My Top 10 of all time, though I could easily have a Kurosawa film in every slot I thought I'd mix it up.

1. Ikiru
2. 12 Angry Men
3. Aguirre: The Wrath of God
4. High & Low
5. Mr Smith Goes to Washington
6. Seventh Seal
7. Chungking Express
8. Dr Strangelove
9. Brotherhood (2004) Staring: Dong-gun Jang
10. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

i consider myself a film buff but there are 3 on that list I hadnt heard of (Aguirre, High & Low and Brotherhood).

What are your thoughts on Hong Kong cinema? I was a big fan of the Tsui Hark and John Woo films of the 90's and 00's

Aguirre (1972) is a film by Werner Herzog film with Klaus Kinski in the lead, a fantastic piece of movie making and in my eyes the best piece of work they ever did together. Klaus Kinski is worth looking into by himself for the type of person he was.

High & Low (1963) is one of those films that tends to get overshadowed in the Kurosawa catalog which is a shame since its a fantastic film and could be considered the best police film thats been made.

Brotherhood is a Korean movie about the struggles of two brothers fighting on different sides of the same war. The best war movie I've seen coming out of Asia in recent years and there's been quite a few, though "Welcome to Dongmakgol" was another very good film.

Big fan of Hong Kong cinema and the directors mentioned, had my own favourites of Wong Kar-wai and Johnnie To. I pretty much watch most things I can get my hands on coming out of the far east. Thialnd has the odd decent film but tend to be playing catch up in terms of film execution to the more established parts on the Asia cinema world.

A lot of the best movies in recent times have been coming from Korea who seem to have pushed themselves to the fore in recent years in terms of interesting stories and well put together productions.

I read a great piece on Kinski and Herzog on the making of Fitzcaraldo (and the taking of the boat over the mountains) - it was in empire if you didnt read it (most probably on their website).

My favorite of the Woo/ Hark movies was a better tomorrow 2, although I do have a soft spot for both the Killer and Once a Thief. Havent seen any of those types of films in years.

I am so glad the mooted remake of the killer with Sly never got made!

I'll check out the article cheers. There's a few videos on youtube thats show Kinski in one of his infamous rants during the filming of Fitzcaraldo.

John Woo has tended to stick with Hollywood more since doing his first film "Hard Target". Remember while doing that movie Universal basically got Sam Raimi to babysit Woo as they felt it was to big a risk to give a Asian director full reign.

My favourite Woo films are probably Hard Boiled and Bullet in the Head but I think I'm biased as both have Tony Leung in them who I rate extremely high as a actor.

Plenty of remakes I'd rather Hollywood hadn't done and some they plan to do in the future but any remake that involves Sly goes near the top of the list. Not sure what the current state of a potential Oldboy remake is at, both Spielberg and Will Smith have been attached to the project at some time or another but seems to be in limbo once more.

"The Chaser" was meant to be getting a remake by Scorsese and his team behind the "Departed" which itself was a remake. "The Chaser" was a good film but I'm not sure I want to see Di Caprio (just never warmed to him) running around once more in a movie plot I've grown to love.

What did you think of Herzogs Bad Lieutenant?

I loved it personally!

I enjoyed both Bullet in the Head and Hard Boiled but found them nowhere near as entertaining as the ones I mentioned (I know Bullet wasnt supposed to be entertaining!).

Once a Thief was like a Hong Kong Hudson Hawke (which I liked despite its Turkey credentials).

God of Gamblers 1&2 were enjoyable too.

As said I'm most likely biased due to the Tony Leung link.

Yeah didn't mind GoG or Once a Thief as they were just kick back films that were enjoyable to watch.

I enjoyed "Bad Lieutenant" as it had all little touches of a Herzog film and Cage showed that occasionally he does do a good movie in between paychecks. Despite that and the fact this was neither a remake or sequel though seemed in many ways to be both in some parts I actually prefer the 92 Harvey Keitel version.

You seen much of Takeshi Kitano's body of work? (other than Takeshi's Castle obviously).

I am a Keshi head! Well not his films but of the skipping stones variety.

I am ashamed to say, I have never seen any of his stuff. I fell out of watching movies about 5 years ago. Up until then, I was a huge film fanatic. I remember the days pre blockbuster of walking down to the local video shop at 14 and getting out video nasties (I remember a particular double bill of Nightmares from a damaged brain and Shogun Assassin).

I went through a stage of getting anything with Sho Kosugi in it (including taping all of Lee Van Cleefs TV show, the Master) and then went on to Jackie Chan.

After that I went through the Hong Kong stage before eventually going more mainstream.

I still have a soft spot for films on the Horror Zone Channel though!

His films are definitely worth watching if you can get yourself into watching movies again, one of my favourite directors/actors of the past 25yrs.

I used to keep track of most of whats coming out but in recent times I've not been as bothered and rarely these days keep a track of whats coming out mainstream wise.

I will say IMDB is part of the reason I still do keep track of world cinema as its so easy to find out what favourite directors/actors are up to. To be honest the extent of what I keep my eye on is done on the basis of what actors/directors I consider to have done good work and check to see what they are up to every so often.

Like you had a Sho Kosugi period I had the same for Tony Leung and Toshiro Mifune.

films i can watch over and over , in no particular order

Shawshank Redemption
StarWars origanal trilogy
The Magnificent 7
Jaws
National Lampoons Animal House
LOTR trilogy
Shaun of the Dead
Oceans 11
The Searchers
Dirty Harry
Rocky I , II , III
The Hangover
Chopper
Scum