My Favorite Films

While on my nightly walk last night, I got to thinking about a bit of a
back and forth that I had had on a thread with Berry about one of my
favorite movies. I realized I know what my current favorites are but
have no idea what everyone else’s are. I would love to know what films
other people watch again and again. I’m not talking what we think are
the “best” movies we know of but what we most enjoy watching.

With one exception (and the reason for the exception is because I haven’t
had one title all that long) all of the titles in my current top 10
(and don’t count them because there are 11 films in my top 10) are
films that I have watched at least a dozen times each (and one title
I’ve easily watched between 2 & 3 dozen times.)


My current list, in no particular order, consists of:

Shall We Dance? (the original Japanese version from 1996)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Desk Set (my favorite Tracey & Hepburn movie)
Lilies of the Field
All That Jazz
Shut Up and Sing
Secretary
The Stunt Man
Bringing Up Baby
Miracle on 34^th Street (the original 1947 version)
The American President


I can think of 8 other films that would be right under this list (and
most will probably end up on my list) but I won’t include them now.

Whatis on everyone else’s list…and what about the films make them some of
your favorites? I’ll explain why these are my favorites in a later
post…I just wanted to get the ball rolling (and hopefully I’ll learn
about some film I have overlooked and get a new title to enjoy.)

I love that you love Bringing Up Baby. That's what Ben and I watched on our wedding night (no comments from the peanut gallery please) and we re-watch it on our anniversary every year.


1.Harold and Maude (romance between a suicidal youth and a 70 year old woman during which she teaches him to love life...Ruth Gordon blows me away...always)
2.Chocolat (I like chocolate...and romance...and Johnny Depp...and oh,yes Juliette Binoche)
3. Bull Durham (Susan Sarandon gives a wonderful performance in this...and the music added a lot to the mood)
4.The Abyss (again...the romance of it...reminded Ben and I of how we are with each other sometimes...but the strong connection of the two leads...oh,yeah,I know the feeling. )
5.Henry V (Kenneth Branagh) - what a performance this was...absolutely riveting and the music, again...added so much. How did this man who directed and starred in this....turn in that chowderhead performance of Hamlet??
6.Shakespeare in Love (funny, romantic, visually stunning)
7.Dances with Wolves ( I've gone off Kevin Costner...but I have to hand it to him...this is one heck of a movie)
8.Umbrellas of Cherbourg (French, romantic, musical....love it! )
9.Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Steve Martin and John Candy....what?? I have a sense of humor)
10.Mr.Blanding Builds His Dream House (always struck me as hilarious....more so now that I've got my own house and have done repairs in it! Plus....Cary Grant. )
11.A Man and A Woman....( French, practically no dialog and romantic out the yinyang )
12. A New Leaf...Elaine May and Walter Matthau...funniest movie ever. He is suave and needs money. She is an heiress who is a botanist but in a complete fog trailing breadcrumbs behind her. Yes, they fall in love....after he marries her.


OOOOH.....my current favorite movie is Once....Irish musicians...a gentle, sweet story....love it.

Come on people, I know the rest of you watch movies...and have favorites. Let us in on them...we might find one we haven't seen yet!

btw If anyone wants to see a romantic comedy...James Marsters (Brainiac and soon Brainiac 5 on “Smallville”) stars in “P.S. I Love You” Saturday at 5 PM on Lifetime.

Blade Runner ... not the director's final cut, but the one where Harrison Ford does "voice-overs" in various scenes.
Besides the only explanation needed ... Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Joanna Cassidy, et. al.!

I'll have to think about this and come back later, but for now I can put Blade Runner on the list. I have the 6 DVD set with all the different versions and 'behind the scenes' stuff, etc.

But when it comes down to what movie I've watched the most, at least in a theater, that would have to be The Horse's Mouth, starring Alex Guiness and the reason I watched it so many times was because of the musical score. I've only now found out what it was at IMDB..

"LIEUTENANT KIJE"
Written by Sergei Prokofiev
Arranged by Kenneth V. Jones
Conducted by Muir Mathieson

Okay, Cloverfield is on the list, The Entertainer (again because of the musical score)........7 to go....

Later.........

"I love that you love Bringing Up Baby. That's what Ben and I watched on our wedding night (no comments from the peanut gallery please) and we re-watch it on our anniversary every year."

(almost spews Ensure all over his keyboard)

Listen,pal, I didn't say it was all we did....and we had been given a small, black and white tv for a present and thought it was so neat! (as poor college kids we had been living without tv for 4 years) . :P

The Great Escape
42nd Street
The Abyss
The Shining

Ghost Ship (really no good explanation here)
Deep Blue Sea (again...)

And I love all the disaster movies from the late 70s (I think?) like Earthquake, Towering Inferno, Poseidon Adventure, and all the Airport ones.

We'll I am a sucker all the way for a good romantic comedy.....or just romance.....I own all of these and have watched them many many times.........

Pretty Woman
The American President
Sweet Home Alabama
While you were Sleeping
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Chasing Liberty
The Wedding Planner
The Wedding Date
Meet Joe Black
Miracle on 34th street ( both new and old one)
The Cutting Edge
Keeping the Faith

Etc....etc......you get the idea.....alll these movies make me smile and feel good and sometimes cry tears of joy......that is all I want from my movies.......... :)

Great topic Covina Guy!!!!!!!

Great list Jojo. There are only three titles there that I don't also own and enjoy on a regular basis.

Considering the fact that you like some of the commercially less popular titles (like "Chasing Liberty", which I also think is a really good little movie) you might want to check out "Waitress" if you haven't already discovered it. The movie stars Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelly (who also wrote and directed the film and was unfortunately murdered just before she finished post-production.)

I'll check it out, thanks!!!!

Jeremiah Johnson (1972) with Robert Redford
The Razor's Edge (1946) the original, but the re-make in '84 with Bill Muary is pretty good too.
Cool Hand Luke (1967) with Paul Newman
Mulholland Drive (2001) when I fell in love with Naomi Watts!
21 Grams (2003) again Naomi Watts
Unforgiven (1992) with Clint Eastwood perennial bad ass.
Gran Torino (2008) again Clint Eastwood
True Grit (1969) gotta love John Wayne. I could list several others here from The Cowboys to The Shoootist.
Alien Sex Files 3: Alien's Gone Wild (2008) What's not to love... haha, had to be sure you were paying attention.
The Shinning (1980) Jack in my all time favorite horror movie; (which makes me think of another great film One Flew Over the Coockoo's Nest).

Wow, I can think of a bunch of other one that I love too... That was fun. :)

Somewhere in Time of course
Time Bandits
Rocky
Lonely Are The Brave
Holiday
5th Element
Serenity
Ben Hur
El Cid
Notting Hill
several others :)

Rus wrote:Alien Sex Files 3: Alien's Gone Wild (2008) What's not to love... haha, had to be sure you were paying attention.
:)

lol, that reminds me!!!

Alien
My Stepmother Is an Alien :)
Starman

Trav, you'll soon have a new one to add to your favorites list. Milla has a new one coming out next month.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220634/

I think I may have seen one today..Scott Pilgrim vs. the World... Probably could put Whip It in that catagory
Although it's new, I don't think I could ever get tired of It's Complicated.
Love Actually, favorite Christmas movie.
Grosse Point Blank!!!
Moonstruck
Ever After
Four Weddings and a Funeral


Hate to say it but..Gone with the Wind...most quoted story in the house...lots of put on that red dress moments around here over the years.

Right there on Bull Durham..so many great monologues...Baseball being religion, long slow kisses etc.

Do mini series count? Cause Pride and Prejudice 95 A&E is just brilliant if you have six hours. :P and probably that whole slew of Jane Austen movies that came out around then. The Scarlet Pimpernel w/ Richard E. Grant. who also did St Ives (rumpity rumpity rumpity rump, here I go on my charger...lol)

Dangerous Beauty...
Contact
A Room with a View
Kill Bill 1 and 2
V is for Vendetta

also a category
Hero, House of the Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon...or is that the other way around, I can never remember...visually stunners all with great storys.

different color because they all fall under the same kind of category
Doris Day movies...I can't even explain that.
Audrey Hepburn....
Cary Grant...
old musicals or Fred, Gene, Richard Harris etc...
soft spot for old spaghetti westerns too..
anything James Bond...Daniel Craig makes me feel like I'm cheating on Sean Connery tho.
campy monster movies like Jaws..sometimes it is all about that darn theme music..see above sketti westerns.
Gigi
I wouldn't call it a favorite but for Zulu...it's awful but it's great in a weird way.


Rusty...The Razor's Edge? either of them..awful, book is brilliant tho.

Movie Fiend here...oh there are these two awesome movies that I just bumped into..they're both writer/director Stephan Poliakroff movies Almost Strangers and Shooting the Past

seems I could list all night and so...






Edited to add...as soon as I shut my puter off I remembered
Out of Africa....*sigh* Just epic...I love epics.
LOTR the extended set..who couldn't just watch those a bazillion times.

and a really cool indie movie The Legend of 1900..the most brilliant Tim Roth ever has been or will be....it's worth the search.

Banjo wrote:Trav, you'll soon have a new one to add to your favorites list. Milla has a new one coming out next month.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1220634/

GADZOOKS! Milla AND Ali....be still my fibrillating heart! GOIN TO THAT ONE BWAHAHAHAAAAAA

Okay, after seeing all these listed it jogged my memory. Here's my 10:

Blade Runner
Blow-Up (Michaelangelo Antonioni's best)
Cloverfield
Contact
Grosse Point Blank .."I want to order 1000 rounds of 9mm, subsonic"......always cracks me up....
Notting Hill
The Entertainer
The Horses Mouth
Shakespeare in Love
anything with Cyd Charisse....when she dances...

Look at you, Banjo...scientific AND romantic. Killer combination.

I'm just a harmless little fuzz ball....