<p>I especially loved Gosford Park and You Can Count on Me. Saw them both twice. It was necessary to see GP twice because of the mumbled, heavily-accented British English!</p>
<p>The soundtrack is also very good but it doesn’t have the song Just In Time by Nina Simone - which is the last song played at the very end of Before Sunset - Julie Delpy has such a great voice.</p>
<p>Mixed Nuts (Steve Martin, Madelin Kahn, Adam Sandler and team)</p>
<p>From here to eternity (Donna Reed is wonderful, Frank Sinatra can act, Ernest Borgnine- you got to hate him here)</p>
<p>Bicycle Theif - Apple Wars (for those who like subtittles)</p>
<p>I love movies with smart dialog. And no one writes smarter dialog than David Mamet. Find a copy of House of Games (1987). A Chicago con-man cons a psychologist who takes an interest into his activities. Great dialog and empty Chicago streets at midnight. Ronin (1998): a group of mercenaries are hired by an IRA faction to steal a briefcase in France. A great car case, French locations and dialog between Robert De Niro and Jean Reno (who bums a cigarette from Reno): Are you management or labor? (Reno) If I were management, I wouldnt have given you a cigarette. Beats the hell out of Make my day. </p>
<p>The Train (1964) starring Burt Lancaster and directed by the great John Frankenheimer. Based on a true story about the French Resistance in the days leading to the liberation of Paris by Allied Forces, a Nazi General (Paul Scofield) commandeers a train going back to Germany and loads it with looted Impressionist art works. Lancaster plays a Resistance leader working at the rail yard who must be convinced to find a way to keep that train and its stolen art from leaving France. This movie is one of the last great Black and White war movies made and was filmed entirely in and around Paris. In the extended opening scene, German soldiers are putting the looted art into wooden shipping crates and stenciling the artist names on each (Picasso, Manet, Monet, Degas, Seurat ). That orderly packing and stenciling of shipping containers takes on a terrible power. Impressionist art, steam locomotives, the French Resistance, Nazis and machine guns. Whats not to like?</p>
<p>So many movies are filmed in Toronto and Vancouver. Movies dont have a sense of place. Settings are generic and boring. The following movies give you a real sense of time and place:</p>
<p>Bullitt: San Francisco in the 60s
Vertigo: San Francisco in the 50s
Hard Days Night: London in the 60s (great b/w photography)
The Day of the Jackal: Paris in the 70s
The Ipcress File: London in the mid 60s (Michael Caine as Harry Palmer)
Funeral in Berlin: Berlin in the mid 60s
Bob Le Fambeur (Bob the Gambler): the great gangster movie directed by Jean Pierre Melville
Paris in the early 50s
Breathless: Paris in the mid 60s
A Man and a Woman: Paris in the late 60s</p>
<p>All of these movies are on dvd and most are available at better video stores.</p>
<p>Slightly off topic:</p>
<p>Do any of you use Netflix? Are you pleased with their choices/service?</p>
<p>I am sick of how much On Demand cable costs and the lack of decent offerings.</p>
<p>I had forgotten about “The Train”. Good film.</p>
<p>Elleneast, we have just begun using Netflix, and so far it has been great. It fits my life and movie habits very well - it is not such a great fit for my H, son is fine, he just tells me what to add to the list.</p>
<p>The service is excellent - they have several mail-out locations scattered around the country, so we get faster service than typical for mail/delivery. the other thing I really like is the browsing for movies - I’m used to doing that for books on Amazon, and it is easier than walking around Blockbuster. The selection is incredible - they have over 50000 movies, how many more could there possibly be.</p>
<p>Now my husband would give you a different story, he likes to watch old movies, in snatches ala AMC and TNT. He also likes to buy DVDs, although typically he only watches them once more - he is home with the kids in the summers, and this is a habit left over from when they were much smaller. My movie watching habit is more, I want to watch a number of movies that I never got a chance to see at the theater, I want to see them once, and I don’t necessarily ever want to see them again - or not for many years. SO the episodic see them and send back is great for me.</p>
<p>I think everyone should see The Pianist. It’s another holacaust film- but I think this one is much more emotional than even schindler’s list. It’s a long one, but well worth it.</p>
<p>Michuncle, I love “House of Games” and “The Verdict,” and I too love movies with smart dialogue. It doesn’t get any smarter than “All About Eve”; the writing <em>sparkles</em>. “A Few Good Men”? Every line is quoteable. Sayles’ “Lone Star”? Great interwoven plots, themes, and dialogue–with top-notch acting and cinematography. “A Man for All Seasons”? “Patton” (Francis Ford Coppola)? Frankenheimer: “The Manchurian Candidate,” one of my top 5 of all time. Love your thought about movies that evoke a time and a place. Great list. </p>
<p>Celebrian 25, agree with “The Pianist.” Have you seen “The Grey Zone”? (If you haven’t, it’s almost unbearably painful.) Another: “The Shop on Main Street.”</p>
<p>Seconds for:
“King of Hearts”
“Days of Heaven” (for the score and cinematography alone)
“Ran”
“400 Blows”
“Bringing Up Baby”
“Treasure of Sierra Madre”
“Perfect Storm”</p>
<p>Personal favorites:
Anything Hitchcock (“Foreign Correspondent”)
Anything Ford (“How Green was my Valley,” “The Quiet Man,” “Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”)
Anything Kurosawa (“Rashomon” and “The Hidden Fortress”)
Almost anything Orson Welles (“The Stranger,” “The Third Man,” “The Magnificent Ambersons,” “Touch of Evil”)
Anything with Gene Tierney (“Leave Her to Heaven”)
Memento
The Usual Suspects
“A Night at the Opera” (Marx brothers)
“The Most Dangerous Game” (1932)
“The Haunting” (1962)
“The Nun’s Story”
“Dark City”
“Lonesome Dove” (miniseries)
“Back to the Future 1”
“Forbidden Planet”
"Groundhog Day (it’s growing on me the more I see it 
)
“My Cousin Vinny”
“The Time of Their Lives” (Abbott and Costello)
“Absence of Malice”
“Babe”
“Invaders From Mars” (1953)
“Sorceress”
“The Wicker Man”
“Chinatown”
“Jacob’s Ladder”
“The Three Lives of Thomasina,” “Pollyanna,” and “Greyfriars Bobby” (old Disney)
“The Scarlet Empress” (Marlena Dietrich 1934)
“The Mummy” (Boris Karloff 1932)
“Cat People” (1942) and the unrelated sequel “Curse of the Cat People” (1944)
“L.A. Confidential”
“Night of the Hunter” (1955)
“Sunset Blvd.”
“Robinson Crusoe on Mars”
“Spartacus”
“The Others”
“Support Your Local Gunfighter” and “… Sheriff”
“Eve’s Bayou”
“Charade” (1963)
“Stalag 17”
“The Day the Earth Stood Still”
“The Conversation” (“He’d kill us if he had the chance.”)</p>
<p>Has anyone nominated The African Queen? It’s great.</p>
<p>Mudders_ Mudder: Other movies with smart writing</p>
<p>The Untouchables: Mamet writes the following at the beginning of the movie</p>
<p>1930. Prohibition has transformed Chicago into a City at War. Rival gangs compete for control of the citys billion dollar empire of illegal alcohol, enforcing their will with the hand grenade and the Tommy gun.</p>
<p>It is the time of the Gang lords.
It is the time of Al Capone.</p>
<p>One, Two, Three (1961): Billy Wilders satire starring Jimmy Cagney as the head of Coke Cola in West Berlin. Capitalism vs. Communism. Non-stop political and social satire. Written by Billy Wilder and I.A. L. Diamond.</p>
<p>The Sweet Smell of Success (1957): Burt Lancaster as a Walter Winchell type gossip columnist. Written by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman. </p>
<p>The Professionals (1966): A western starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin: a group of mercenaries are hired by a rich business man to go into Mexico to rescue his kidnapped Mexican wife. The kidnapper: a Mexican revolutionary (Jack Palance) that the mercenaries once rode with. A great story about the romance of revolution, the falling away of revolutionary adore and finding your moral compass. Written and directed by Richard Brooks, the dialog cracks like a whip </p>
<p>For atmosphere: The Hustler with Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott. Great black and white photography. The pool hall looks like its been there forever </p>
<p>And lets not forget African Queen (1951)</p>
<p>With a screenplay written by James Agee and directed by John Huston. Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn starring: everything was in alignment!</p>
<p>For atmosphere: How about “The Name of the Rose”? I could almost smell that one. Not as good as the book, but how could it be? :)</p>
<p>Love “The Professionals,” “Hustler,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” and, of course, “African Queen.” Great Bogie: “Petrified Forest” (Bette Davis and Leslie Howard making poetry in the desert), “They Drive by Night” (Ida Lupino, George Raft), “High Sierra” (written by John Huston).</p>
<p>“Ninotchka.” Garbo under the Lubitsch touch, Wilder collaborating on writing. Heaven.</p>
<p>I’ll have to check out “One, Two, Three” and “The Untouchables.”</p>
<p>"Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.‘’ Thus begins “Eve’s Bayou.” If you’re a sucker for Etta James and Ray Charles, the soundtrack alone’s worth the price of admission. Throw together beautiful people, family secrets, and a little voodoo. Stir carefully.</p>
<p>“Se7en.” “Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.’ I believe the second part.” Not for Morgan Freeman fans only. Not for the faint of stomach, either. I don’t think Andy Walker has written much since. That’s okay; “Se7en” is enough.</p>
<p>Christopher Nolan’s (“Memento”) “Insomnia” starring Alaska. Al Pacino underplays it for once. Splendidly.</p>
<p>Saw an interview with Ernest Leyman about writing “North by Northwest.” Great stuff.</p>
<p>City of God is amazing</p>
<p>Usual Suspects, 12 monkeys, the game, king kong, ocean’s 11 and 12, road to peridition, and office space.</p>
<p>Everybody here should watch City of God. It is without a doubt the best foreign language film I have ever seen, and I have seen many. Every single American who has listened to my advice and rented this movie has said that it is the best they have ever seen. </p>
<p>Others: Memento, Goodfellas, Shawshank Redemption, American History X, Voces Inocentes…</p>
<p>But REMEMBER: CITY OF GOD</p>
<p>I just wanted to comment on the Netflix thing. We don’t have cable/HBO (haven’t for about 7-8 years) and we get ALL our movies for free from the library. I use their website to search and put holds on all new release DVDs. The downside is that we sometimes have to wait our turn, so it is not for those who want the immediate gratification! But we are so busy with sports and stuff that we rarely have time to watch movies and there is usually something in my account every week. </p>
<p>I think the last time I paid to rent a movie from a place like Blockbuster was about 2 years ago. </p>
<p>Also, I love the soundtrack to Garden State! H had never even heard the Simon and Garfunkel song before.</p>
<p>All the films mentioned in this thread are worthy of high praise. And then there are movies which are guilty pleasures. I feel conflicted about using this category because I can justify my liking them as much as I do the films already recommended.</p>
<p>Road House: Like a moth to a flame, I am transfixed whenever its on TV (and its on TV a lot). 80s big hair, bar bouncers, yuppie patrons using their Amex cards, fights, Sam Elliott and Ben Gazzara. Oh yeah, that Swayse guy </p>
<p>Above the Law/Under Siege: Even Steven Segall couldnt beat down a good story line and decent direction.</p>
<p>Hard Target: John Claude Van Dammes only good movie thanks in great measure for John Woos direction. This was Woos first Hollywood movie and the least diluted from his work as a Hong Kong director. Much of Hard Targets action sequences and themes reappear in Face/Off (Nick Cage/John Travolta). The film also co-stared Lance Henriksen, a great character actor who is always better than the material given him. See the following </p>
<p>Stone Cold: staring Brian Bosworth, its a terrible biker film thats redeemed by Henriksen and William Forsyth. Hoped their paychecks covered the rent </p>
<p>The Phantom: Billy Zane, Kristie Swanson and Treat Williams starred in this comic adaptation which was surprisingly low key for the genre. A surprising lack of bombast </p>
<p>Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man: Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke. I have no idea what this movie was all about until I turned on the French soundtrack on the DVD by accident. This is a French film masquerading as an American movie before Luc Besson started doing the same in France. Here you have a movie with the iconic Cowboy and Motorcyclist (think Brando) having their existentialist moments. Watch the movie with the French audio and it starts to make some sense (even if you dont understand French). </p>
<p>Heavens Gate: Yes, it destroyed United Artists. Its long at 3 hrs and 39 minutes. A retelling of the Johnson County range war in Wyoming pitting Eastern European immigrants against cattle ranchers, the movie was released in a cut 2 hour version which didnt make much sense. The movie was restored to its original preview length. Even so, the DVD could use even more footage to explain some of the plot complications. In its current state, its a truly flawed epic.</p>
<p>Doc Hollywood: Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner, Woody Harrelson and Brigit Fonda. A charming movie about a New York plastic surgeon stuck in South Carolina while on his way to California. Michael J. Fox dances with Julie Warner under the stars. Patsy Cline is singing Crazy in the background. Gets me every time </p>
<p>An Affair to Remember: Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. The banter between the two in the first part of the movie is adult and charming. The middle part of the movie drags and the ending should have been reworked a bit. Still </p>
<p>Inside Man</p>
<p>Music by Terence Blanchard was super.</p>
<p>i’m writing down a lot of these suggestions… i do the blockbuster 3/at a time in the mail and one free in store rental per week, so it’ll take me awhile to get through all of them :)</p>
<p>On the Waterfront
Gone with the Wind
Fiddler on the Roof
Singin’ in the Rain* </p>
<p>*a must-see; best movie of all time</p>