Favourite (or favorite) Movies

Thought I'd start a thread for favourite movies - although there is one rule....you can only mention one at a time ! Hehe (well otherwise it would be a very short thread!) I have loads of films I love & some that I forgot I love too - so I thought a thread to mention one film at a time & why you like it might inspire or remind others of films they had forgotten about.

Gawd...I hope that all makes sense!!!

Ok - I'll start
One film I have watched sooooooooooo many times is "Love Actually" it's a smiley film, but still has me crying in parts (& if you have seen it.....the look on Liam Neesons face when carrying his wife's coffin breaks my heart!!)

I don't think I've seen that one.......I am definitely going to look for it! I love Liam Neeson.

One of my favorites is, 'Schindler's List'.

I have never watched Schindlers List, I sort of have avoided watching it because the whole of the Holocaust & persecution that happened at the time upsets me way too much.Unfortunately the persecution of "people" still goes on now, if it be race,sexuality,religion etc.Oh - & believe me, I'm not burying my head in the sand by not watching the film - I think it is something I learned about at an impressionable age & was so horrified by it (it was a documentary) that in a later age, through the need of knowledge, I did find out more.I have made a promise to myself to watch it though.

The strange coincidence is that I read this a little while back -
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/t/rosenblat.htm

& a film is being made of it
http://www.atlanticoverseaspictures.com/

The young actor playing the young "Herman" is Thomas Sangster who played Liam Neeson's stepson in "Love Actually" - now that is spooky!!!

Oops - me going off topic a little (& maybe a bit too serious for Drifty too)

I love so many movies but the one I'll mention now is "Once Around" starring Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter. She plays a young woman from a close-knit Italian family who falls in love with and marries a wealthy older motivational speaker who is loud, obnoxious and always manages to say and do the wrong thing. Naturally, her family can't stand him. But after a while, they and the audience start to see him the way Holly Hunter sees him and realizes that he's actually good-hearted and generous and well-intentioned

It's a movie I always recommend to others.

Another favorite of mine is 'The Piano'. There are just parts that I'll never forget.

Another movie I like is "Surf's Up" which is a kind of cartoon mockumentary about surfing penguins. One of my favorite scenes is one where the hero's older brother who can't understand his brother's love of surfing is talking about how male penguins are the ones who hatch the eggs and how it's time for his brother to "step up and be a man". Then you see a penguin chasing an egg and hollering, "QUINCY, COME TO DADDY!"

It also features my new favorite insult: "He's a dirty trashcan full of poop!"

Well Badger -I'll certainly keep an eye out for "Once Around" - & Sky - yes the Piano is excellent -& I love Michael Nyman's score (he also did a brilliant score called "Molly to the film "Wonderland" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx5cd8IEG4Y )

So from that I will lead onto "The Lion King" (sorry I am a huge disney fan!) & it came out at a time I was on a bit of a low...& it just made me happy :)

Favorite movie....hmmm how to pick just one.

I'm curious, what is everyone's criteria for what makes a movie their all time favorite?

A favorite to me is just one you really liked, whether it be funny, serious, documentary, whatever. You can't just pick one.............

My fave movies:

To Kill a Mocking Bird
The Paper Chase
West Side Story
E.T.
Grease
Meet The Parents

Why? Just because I enjoy them! :D

THE BIG LEBOWSKI!

"Napoleon Dynamite"

I kinda left the thread open - as in not your all time favourite (only because I know it depends on my mood as to which one I would choose) I thought that maybe when one person mentioned a film...it would jog a memory of a film that you had forgotten about etc :) & might want to recommend.

Titanic (1997) - although I was gutted when someone told me the end before I watched it (er..that is a joke ) Ohhhhh did I sob at the end!

I love "Titanic" too. In fact, I like all the movies I've seen about The Titanic.

Has anyone here ever seen either "Whale Rider" or "The Secret of Roan Inish?" Those are both really good movies.

Whale Rider is a film I had meant to see but never did , I haven't heard of The Secret of Roan Inish though.
FC - I have to say I love West Side Story too - I remember seeing it on TV when I was a child & it was the first "adult" film that made me cry. (Usually it was Lassie etc)

Billy Elliot - such a great performance by Jamie Bell & also Gary Lewis who played his father (& the last scene made me cry & have goosebumps at the same time!)
OOO & Jamie Bell was born in the same town as me- errr just a couple *cough* of years after

I sobbed at the end of West Side Story. Romeo and Juliet too. I cry very easy when watching movies.

Clay Aiken said he liked Whale Rider.

FC, here is Roger Ebert's review. It gives a good summary of the movie. Here's an excerpt from it:

Quote :

One day, many years ago, an ancestor of Fiona spied a beautiful creature sunning by the sea. She was both woman and seal. We would call her a mermaid, but on that western coast of Ireland such creatures were well-known as Selkies.

The ancestor trapped the creature and married her, and they had children together and lived happily, although she seemed to long for the sea. One day she learned where her husband had hidden her sealskin, up under the roof, and she put it back on, and returned to the sea.

Fiona (Jeni Courtney), who is 12 or 13 years old, is told this story by a relative. It is not told as a "fairy tale" but as an account of family history, to be taken quite seriously. And well might Fiona believe it, because ever since there have been dark-haired children in her family who were said to throw back to the Selkie, and whose eyes turned yearningly to the sea.

The year is about 1946. Fiona's mother has died, and her father can barely be budged from his mourning in the pub. She is sent to live with her grandparents, on a sea coast across from the island of Roan Inish, where the whole family once lived. There she learns the story of her little brother Jamie, whose cradle was carried off by the waves. And there, with her grandparents and her cousin Eamon (Richard Sheridan), she first explores Roan Inish, which means, in Gaelic, "island of the seals." The secret of John Sayles' "The Secret of Roan Inish" is that it tells of this young girl with perfect seriousness. This is not a children's movie, not a fantasy, not cute, not fanciful. It is the exhilarating account of the way Fiona rediscovers her family's history and reclaims their island. If by any chance you do not believe in Selkies, please at least keep an open mind, because in this film Selkies exist in the real world, just like you and me.

Thanks Badger! Sounds really good!

I really liked Whale Rider.

Some of my other fav movies;
Sweeney Todd
The Constant Gardner
The Queen
Big Fish
Oscar And Lucinda
Elizabeth
Sleepy Hollow
Anerican Gangster
Gladiator
No Country For Old Men
O Brother Where Art Thou
Fargo
Gangs Of New York

Oh, Fargo!! Yes, one of my very fave movies ever!!

Pearl Harbor
Oh gawd - I've mentioned another sad one again! It opened my eyes to the events that happened then though! (I did my usual "oooo I must find out more on the internet") I do enjoy films which portray history with a underlying story - rather than the story taking the main part of the film - errrrrr if that makes sense!!

I enjoyed "The Queen" too. I thought James Cromwell was hilarious as Prince Philip. And could Prince Charles be any more of a passive-aggressive weinie?

Some more favorites:

"Eight Men Out"
"This Boy's Life"
the original "Parent Trap"
"Jason and the Argonauts"
both versions of "Imitation of Life"
both the 1936 and 1951 versions of "Showboat"
"Cabaret"
"Flower Drum Song"
"Chicago"
"Angels with Dirty Faces"
"Dinner at Eight"
"Stage Door"
"The Women" (1939)
"Cavalcade"
"The Heiress"
"Raising Arizona"
"Yankee Doodle Dandy"
"Singin in the Rain"
"The Bandwagon"
"Mary Poppins"
"The Sound of Music"
"The Devil Wears Prada"
"The Green Mile"

Quote :

One film I have watched sooooooooooo many times is "Love Actually" it's a smiley film, but still has me crying in parts (& if you have seen it.....the look on Liam Neesons face when carrying his wife's coffin breaks my heart!!)

Adrift.......I watched this movie tonight.........and yes, it is a great movie! I absolutely loved it!!! Thank you for telling us about it.

I mentioned this movie over on the Mad Men thread but I suppose I should talk about here. Another one of my favorite movies is The Winslow Boy which serendipitously enough for me, was actually on television Saturday morning. So I recorded it on my DVR!

Roger Ebert's review

Quote :

The movie is based on a 1940s play by Terence Rattigan, inspired by a true story. It involves the Winslow family of South Kensington, London--the father a retired bank official, wife pleased with their life, adult daughter a suffragette, older son at Oxford, younger son a cadet at the Royal Naval Academy. One day the young cadet, named Ronnie, is found standing terrified in the garden. He has been expelled from school for stealing a five-shilling postal order.

In a scene that establishes the moral foundation for the entire story, his father Arthur calls him into the study after dinner and demands the truth, adding, "A lie between us cannot be hidden." Did he steal the money? "No, Father, I didn't." The father is played by Nigel Hawthorne ("The Madness of King George"), who is stern, firm and on the brink of old age. He believes his son and calls in the family solicitor to mount a defense. Soon one of the most famous attorneys in London has been hired: Sir Robert Morton (Jeremy Northam), who led the defense of Oscar Wilde. The father devotes his family's large but finite resources to the expensive legal battle, which eventually leads to the older son being brought home from Oxford, servants being dismissed and possessions being sold. Arthur's wife Grace (Gemma Jones) protests that justice is not worth the price being paid, but Arthur persists in his unwavering obsession.

The court case inspires newspaper headlines, popular songs, public demonstrations and debates in Parliament. It proceeds on the surface level of the film. Underneath, hidden in a murk of emotional contradictions, is the buried life of the suffragette daughter, Catherine (Rebecca Pidgeon). She is engaged to the respectable, bloodless John Watherstone (Aden Gillett). She has known for years that Desmond, the family solicitor (Colin Stinton) is in love with her. As the case gains notoriety, John's ardor cools: He fears the name Winslow is becoming a laughingstock. And as John fades, Desmond's hopes grow. But the only interesting tension between Catherine and a man involves her disapproval of the great Sir Robert Morton, who rejects her feelings about women's equality and indeed disagrees with more or less every idea she possesses.

It is an interesting law of romance that a truly strong woman will chose a strong man who disagrees with her over a weak one who goes along. Strength demands intelligence, intelligence demands stimulation, and weakness is boring. It is better to find a partner you can contend with for a lifetime than one who accommodates you because he doesn't really care. That is the psychological principle on which Mamet's hidden story is founded, and it all leads up to the famous closing line of Rattigan's play, "How little you know about men." A line innocuous in itself, but electrifying in context.

How cool that you were able to capture the movie!