Favourite movies thread

[RunicWolf]

Favorite movies? Hoooo boy where to start? Lemme do a top 10 here in no real order:

Aliens: I love this movie for so many things. If you can find the cut that chops out the colony bit in the beginning and adds the extended smart turret scene later it's perfect. This was my first R rated movie I ever saw (I tricked Dad, who was visiting, into letting me watch it) and it was also my first serious action movie. It's the standard all other action movies are judged by.

Fight Club: Grows more and more relevant every day.

The Last Dragon: A cheesy martial arts movie. It's total cheese, but it's one I come back to over and over again.

Kung Fu Panda: A bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. It's my "I'm massively depressed and feel like ass" movie.

300: It's a fireside tale and tells you as much from the beginning. I'm a sucker for "last stands" and sacrifices for the good of others, and the Battle of Thermopylae was just that.

Transformers: The Movie: The 1986 animated one that is. For it's cheese factor and the fact as a kid growing up it was an actual life event for me. I've always been a fan of the property, but that movie stands out.

We Were Soldiers: This one is here because it's simply an amazing tale that is firmly grounded in reality. It's been said, by people that where there, that it's a very accurate depiction of the men and events there.

Hellboy: This movie is just raw fun. Plus Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are some of the few comics I bother to look at these days.

Flash Gordon: From 1980. An unapologetic movie based on a campy series. It embraced the camp without over doing it and without poking fun.

Snatch: I should make this a two-fer and add Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels to this as well. I just simply love these movies.

[PolyInFL]

A few movies for poly people that I highly recommend are:

The Big Chill - This film really hits home for me - love without boundaries. It is not always pretty and it sure isn't easy. But the sacrifices made for one another by the friends (and I see them more like a family) is amazing and heartfelt.

Bandits - A fun comedy. They do not use the term polyamory, but the V relationship is clearly that. And it's just a really funny movie as well.

[SchrodingersCat]

Originally Posted by Scott

Never read the book. I've found that if I see the movie first, I'm not so interested in the book; well, that's the way I felt after I saw "Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" (good movie) and then started reading the book; I kept thinking, "I'm not interested in these details, just get on with the story already", laugh :-p. I read

The book is infinitely better than the movie. Even after I'd seen the movie a dozen times, the book was extremely entertaining. It's written as though the author was abridging a much longer book. There's all these parts where the text is in red, and those are the parts where the author supposedly cut out dozens of pages and reduced them to a couple paragraphs. He'll mention what he cut out and why it was pointless... but in actual fact, he wrote the whole book himself and there never was an unabridged version.

I'm currently reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's been on my reading list for ages, but I was trying to get through Song of Ice and Fire. Which, by the way, is also much better than the show. The show is true to the plot and all, but the details in the book add SO much dimension to the characters.

When a movie comes out for a book, I usually try to read the book first if it looks good. I agree that reading the book after seeing the movie is rarely as satisfying as reading the book and then seeing the movie. The part that bothers me the most is how, when I read the book after, the characters have the actors' faces in my imagination. That just irks me.

Like, when I saw the movie for the first Harry Potter, before the final books were written. Then every time a new book came out, I kept seeing the movie faces when I was reading. I can't even remember what they looked like in my head anymore. That was very disappointing. Speaking of Harry Potter, my husband watched all the movies... I kept saying "read the books! read the books!" and he was all like "yeah yeah whatever" ... then he finally read the books and was all like "OMG why didn't I read these sooner?? They're so good!!" I didn't even try not to say "I told you so!"

[NovemberRain]

Originally Posted by Scott

You are a woman yourself, are you not ;-)?

Doesn't mean I'd turn her out of my bed! Just in that movie, I choose Johnny. Cap'n Jack looks a lot like my first serious girlfriend. I also see her in Nicole Kidman (even my mom did. She was so excited to tell me, after they'd seen Chicago, how much the pretty lead actress looked like my girlfriend).

It was actually quite interesting, I'd like to watch all the Pirates again. I had the telly on for company a few weekends ago, and it was one of them (I think the second). The hot, hot, HOT scenes between the girl and Jack and the other guy (will?) conveyed something very different to me, now that I'm in a vee. Current bf and I enjoy talking about how we project ourselves onto/into the movie characters.

One of his favorites is Sahara: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318649/
Rudi Gunn: But I was hoping to meet a girl on the Australian trip!
Al Giordino: No, African war zone; ship of death!
(also two boys, one girl)

Originally Posted by Scott

Same here. I want to see First Knight one day, which definitely plays on the King Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere triangle and has Richard Gere playing Lancelot, an actor I've always liked.

I didn't much care for Gere in that. I waffle on him a lot. Sometimes I like a performance, and more often I don't. He's definitely better older. The movie is quite beautiful though. It was a favorite of mom's, but she's a sucker for Sean Connery.

On biblical fiction: I LOVE IT. The Red Tent was stunning, a whole novel built from two paragraphs in Genesis. Also, _Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal_ is superb. He makes up chapters of the torah and quotes them (Frogs 31).

[Scott]

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Favorite movies? Hoooo boy where to start?

Lol :-)

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Lemme do a top 10 here in no real order:

Aliens: I love this movie for so many things. If you can find the cut that chops out the colony bit in the beginning and adds the extended smart turret scene later it's perfect. This was my first R rated movie I ever saw (I tricked Dad, who was visiting, into letting me watch it)

Laugh :-). Honestly, my favourite scene was the last bit, with Sigourney Weaver in that skimpy outfit.

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

and it was also my first serious action movie. It's the standard all other action movies are judged by.

I generally don't like thriller type movies that are heading towards the horror end, and I don't touch horror films (unless they're old campy ones like Friday the 13th :-p).. I guess I wouldn't be able to explain why, it's just the way I feel.

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Fight Club: Grows more and more relevant every day.

I'd heard of it before, have known some people who swear by it.. but fighting's never been my thing so still haven't seen it. I decided to see a preview of it just now, as well as read the wikipedia description... looks interesting. I loved Edward Norton in The Illusionist, and Brad Pitt in movies like "A River Runs Through it" and "Seven Years in Tibett".. so maybe one of these days, heh :-).

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

The Last Dragon: A cheesy martial arts movie. It's total cheese, but it's one I come back to over and over again.

I see, heh :-).

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Kung Fu Panda: A bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. It's my "I'm massively depressed and feel like ass" movie.

Aww :-). I've wanted to see that ever since it came out, but still haven't gotten around to it. Another 'one of these days' films, laugh :-)

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

300: It's a fireside tale and tells you as much from the beginning. I'm a sucker for "last stands" and sacrifices for the good of others, and the Battle of Thermopylae was just that.

Oh yeah, I loved that film. The fact that some (Not sure if you're into films that criticize the international banking cartels, but one such film (American Dream) paraphrases the famous "This is Sparta" line and switches it for "This is America". I wouldn't want that film without first atleast seeing Money as Debt (and preferably The Money Masters), though, because it brings up a lot of things that wouldn't be understood without some prior information.

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Transformers: The Movie: The 1986 animated one that is. For it's cheese factor and the fact as a kid growing up it was an actual life event for me. I've always been a fan of the property, but that movie stands out.

I too grew up with Transformers and loved it. Don't think there was any other cartoon I liked more at the time. For all that, I'm not sure if I saw the movie; another thing I should check out, heh :-).

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

We Were Soldiers: This one is here because it's simply an amazing tale that is firmly grounded in reality. It's been said, by people that where there, that it's a very accurate depiction of the men and events there.

Cool.

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Hellboy: This movie is just raw fun. Plus Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. are some of the few comics I bother to look at these days.

Cool. I used to read comics a fair amount; I loved the X men back in the day. I also liked the Hellboy film, but I never read the comic or B.P.R.D.

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Flash Gordon: From 1980. An unapologetic movie based on a campy series. It embraced the camp without over doing it and without poking fun.

Cool. Again, never saw this D.C. comic book adaptation; I've liked the Batman and Superman adaptations though :-).

Originally Posted by RunicWolf

Snatch: I should make this a two-fer and add Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels to this as well. I just simply love these movies.

Heard of Snatch, not of "Lock, Stock..." So many movies to see, heh :-).

[ThatGirlInGray]

Originally Posted by SchrodingersCat

When a movie comes out for a book, I usually try to read the book first if it looks good. I agree that reading the book after seeing the movie is rarely as satisfying as reading the book and then seeing the movie. The part that bothers me the most is how, when I read the book after, the characters have the actors' faces in my imagination. That just irks me.

LOL! I'm the complete opposite. If I've read the book first, I usually have little interest in seeing the movie because I know I will get irritated at the changes or just disappointed by how the movie isn't as good as what I see in my head when I read.

BUT if I watch a movie and like it, then I'll make more of an effort to locate and read the book it's based on, and I'll usually enjoy reading the book too. Yes, I have a bit of a problem with seeing the actor's faces as I read (Harry Potter, definitely. Twilight, not so much. Hush, yes, I know, they're crap. To me they're still entertaining crap. Kind of like watching made-for-sy-fy movies. :-P) but it's pretty easy for me to get over it because so much MORE gets added when I read the book!

P.S. Just realized, I completely stopped watching or having any interest in the movies of Harry Potter AND Twilight once I read the books. I haven't watched past #4 for HP or #1 for Twilight.

[RunicWolf]

Originally Posted by Scott

Laugh :-). Honestly, my favourite scene was the last bit, with Sigourney Weaver in that skimpy outfit.

I generally don't like thriller type movies that are heading towards the horror end, and I don't touch horror films (unless they're old campy ones like Friday the 13th :-p).. I guess I wouldn't be able to explain why, it's just the way I feel.

I think you are thinking of Alien, the first one in the series. Aliens was the follow up. Not so much tension and thriller and more kick in the door and shoot some bugs.

Originally Posted by Scott

I'd heard of it before, have known some people who swear by it.. but fighting's never been my thing so still haven't seen it. I decided to see a preview of it just now, as well as read the wikipedia description... looks interesting. I loved Edward Norton in The Illusionist, and Brad Pitt in movies like "A River Runs Through it" and "Seven Years in Tibett".. so maybe one of these days, heh :-).

The fighting in Fight Club is secondary to the social commentary.

Originally Posted by Scott

Cool. I used to read comics a fair amount; I loved the X men back in the day. I also liked the Hellboy film, but I never read the comic or B.P.R.D.

Wise cracking, literal son of Satan good guy, what's not to like?

Originally Posted by Scott

Heard of Snatch, not of "Lock, Stock..." So many movies to see, heh :-).

Lock, Stock... was where a number of the characters from Snatch made their first appearance. While not a true sequel, they are fun to watch close together.

[NovemberRain]

Best book-to-movie translation EVER: Hogfather (Terry Pratchett). BBC did a movie. It was just creepy because all the characters were almost exactly as they were in my head. And it was a very faithful translation.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by polyFM

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Just saw the wikipedia entry on that film; looks pretty good :-).

[Scott]

Originally Posted by PolyInFL

A few movies for poly people that I highly recommend are:

The Big Chill - This film really hits home for me - love without boundaries. It is not always pretty and it sure isn't easy. But the sacrifices made for one another by the friends (and I see them more like a family) is amazing and heartfelt.

I've heard of that film more then once. I have access to Netflix, just watched the first minute of it ("supernothing", laugh :-))

Originally Posted by PolyInFL

Bandits - A fun comedy. They do not use the term polyamory, but the V relationship is clearly that. And it's just a really funny movie as well.

Cool.