What Movies are absolute must-sees?

I was in class today, and my professor played the trailer to the movie Almost Famous, and it got me thinking.

Often I've missed out on seeing a movie because I didn't have the money at the time or my parents didn't approve, or the list goes on. And I was wondering what's on everybody's to be watched list. Also I was wondering what then movies everyone should see. I know that there is not a lack of opinions here in HE, so what advice do you all have?

Anything by Hitchcock, the Coen Brothers, Tim Burton or Jim Jarmusch. (Those are directors, kids.)

To Be Watched List:

Sweeney Todd
Almost Famous
No Country for Old Men

Top Ten movies that everyone should see:

1. Little Miss Sunshine
2. Star Wars (Ep. 4)
3. History of the World (Pt. 1)
4. Crash
5. Spirited Away (or anything by Miyazaki)
6. Stranger Than Fiction
7. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
8. The Princess Bride
9. The Wizard of Oz
10. Labyrinth

There are others, but I think that this is the list of movies I would take with me to a deserted island.

EDIT: Until this is like 20 pages or so, I'll just update my TBW list in this post.

I had my kids watch Psycho, Casablanca, and Ghostbusters just so they would understand some of my references. Is that bad?

I don't have much of a To-Be-Watched list right now. As for must-sees, I started listing, came up with exactly two (Casablanca and The Princess Bride) and realized that I am too tired for lists tonight.

#3 - I sure hope there's electricity on that deserted island! Unless you plan to take along the Professor.

Notorious

The Philadelphia Story
Top Hat
Metropolis
The Great Dictator

A Night at the Opera, Bringing Up Baby and What's Up Doc, which was inspired by Baby. We like screwball comedy.

lg, I used The Great Dictator last year when we were studying WWII. Loved that one! And we were watching a lot of Cary Grant last year. He got around.

I love Cary....

I LOVE Little Miss Sunshine! I was just raving about it to a coworker yesterday. lol. I lorve Miyazaki, but I prefer Nausicaa From the Valley of the Wind.

I love getting imersed in a movie so its practically impossible for me to choose just ten.

but it doesn't follow that I wont try :) off the top of my head, and dvd shelves:

Drama:
BBC's addaptation of Pride & Prejudice
Howard's End
Dr Zhivago
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Legends of the Fall
the Hours
The Color Purple

Comedy:
Bridget Jone's Diary
Good Luck Chuck
The Wedding Crashers
Mean Girls
Life
The Emperor's New Groove

Horror:
The Ring
The Sixth Sense
the Serpent & the Rainbow
The Skeleton Key
Stir of Echos
Se7en
The Mothman Prophecies

Sci-Fi/Fantasy:
LOTR
Minority Report
Stardust
12 Monkeys

I could go on and on until my social security kicks in (if its still around)... and on and on to infinity and beyond. Ok I"m stopping NOW.

(omg lg! I cant wait for next weeks TC!!! at last! cat fights! yay!)

2. 12 Monkeys

3. Titanic

these are not in order btw.

suge, get in the chatroom!

everyone should see Monsters Inc, and the Incredibles.

Meet the Robinsons

Philadelphia

Pay It Forward (kleenex are a must. don't laugh. i'm being serious.)

High Fidelity

The Terminal

Generally speaking, I'm going to say it would suck to miss out in Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter references, so those are a must. I can say I've been missing a lot of Star Wars references lately and consider that a must as well.

Around the HE group in particular, some other musts would include a miminum of one version of "Pride and Prejudice," "Sense and Sensibility," at least one more from Austen; "Princess Bride"; "Twilight" (Dec. 2008); "Aladdin"; "The Emperor's New Grove"; "Sponge Bob" (that just kills me); "Wicked" the musical; "Friends" on dvd, hmm younger members adore "Aquamarine". Not sure what else.

I like movies, but unforunately I don't really see them, so I would be bad for naming movies.

*thinks* Must see movies.....must see movies....

OK, there are an awful lot of films I should have seen but haven't (just as there are a lot of books I should have read....).

Anyway, of the ones I have seen, here are some favourites...

1) Three Colours Trilogy - beautiful, beautiful french films by Krzysztof Kieślowski.
2) Cinema Paradiso - beautiful italian film.
3) Napoleon Dynamite - hilarious!!
4) What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
5) Dodgeball - makes me pee!!
6) Little Miss Sunshine
7) X-men Trilogy - don't know why, just kinda love 'em!!!
8) Almost Famous
9) Shawshank Redemption
10) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I'm sure there are more....

Okay in addition to other that have already been named I would add:

1)Serenity (and also Firefly)
2)Superbad
3)Pirates of the Carribean (I like them all, but you have to at least see the first one)
4)Room with a View
5)Surf Ninjas (seriously, it rocks!)
6)Cars
7)Madagascar
8)Waitress
9)Knocked Up
10)Love Actually

I know there are many other and these aren't necessarily my top ten nor in any order, I didn't want to repeat ones that had already been said.

BEEB! I LOVE SERENITY! how did I miss that? All this is making me want to leave work and spend the day in bed watching movies! Lady, The ShawShank Redemption is one of my all time faves.

#14--> Aare you crazy? Dude! I cry during commercials. Pay It Forward made me break down completely!

More Moves:
Until the sunrise
The Fountain
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Platoon
Dead Men Walking
Full Metal Jacket
Under The Tuscan Sun
Il Postino
chocolate
Amelie
The Birdcage
Too Wong Foo: Thanks For Everything Julie Newman

K, what's wrong with Aqua? I"m old and I like it. I want some starfish earings.

suge, my goal is to get everyone I know to love Serenity/Firefly as much as I do. So far I have managed to get many of my family members obesessed, next up: my dad.

Too Wong Foo? you must mean the original Aussie film of which it is a ripoff: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

The colors movies that LadyN mentions are also awesome.

I must add The Village. It was filmed in the area where I live and grew up and I know a couple of the extras in it.

#15 there is no film or tv version of Wicked. It's a broadway play, and I'm pretty sure that lots of us haven't seen it. I have heard the sound track, and read the book.

#15 I haven't seen: "Pride and Prejudice", "Sense and Sensibility" or anything from Austen (does "Clueless" count?); "Aladdin"; "The Emperor's New Grove"; "Sponge Bob", or "Aquamarine". But I don't care. I'm just going to fake it when they're mentioned and pretend i know what you are talking about. You'll never be able to tell.

mwahahahaha. The Perfect Crime.

#19: Well, what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar.

Everyone should see the Wizard of Oz.

I've seen "Pride and Prejudice" and two versions of Emma, but I haven't seen any other Austen. and I've only seen part of Aquamarine.

Okay, I'm going to list a tremendous number of favorites, occasionally with rationalizations, and you will probably all deplore my taste in movies hereafter. Or maybe not, since many of these are repeats from above.

Beauty and the Beast -- my favorite Disney animated feature
Clue
Dead Poet's Society
Finding Neverland
GalaxyQuest -- I watched a lot of ST:TNG growing up, which makes this parody all the more delicious
Groundhog Day -- which I watch every year on Groundhog Day, as a matter of fact
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Hook
The Hunchback of Notre Dame -- a close second for favorite Disney
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Love Actually -- Espy thinks this film is depressing, but I like it
My Fair Lady
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl -- I liked the rest of the series, but the first one is my favorite
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie -- a young Maggie Smith in the title role. Need I say more?
The Princess Bride -- this is a no-brainer around this group, right? (And I am aware that I mentioned it in my half-asleep post from last night)
Rent -- I fell in love with the music in college, but never managed to see the show on stage. I was thrilled when they made it into a movie, especially since so many original cast members were able to take part
Sense and Sensibility -- my favorite Austen adaptation. Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslett . . . Alan Rickman . . .
Shadowlands -- Anthony Hopkins' heartbreaking portrayal of C.S. Lewis should not be missed
Truly, Madly, Deeply -- it always makes me cry

I've probably forgotten some. Well, that's enough to be going on with at the moment.

Darn it!

How did I forget Truly Madly Deeply???!!! Fantastic film!

#28: It is -- you introduced me to it!

#29 and you introduced me to it.

It always makes me sad when I find friends who haven't seen Firefly\Serenity. It's such a great series\movie.

A couple more movies I have to add now:

The Producers (2006)
V for Vendetta
Batman
Batman Begins
As Good As It Gets
The Shawshank Redemption
Over the Hedge
Men in Black
A Knights Tale
Unbreakable
Toy Story
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005)
Castle in the Sky
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

#30 -- I need to borrow your copy of Firefly sometime before Mom and Dad get back, so I can watch Serenity with them.

I forgot Toy Story and Toy Story 2, and Shrek and Shrek 2 (wasn't as impressed with Shrek 3), and Ever After.

And, in a tremendous oversight, both Espy and I have forgotten to list What About Bob? in our favorites.

There are so many great movies mentioned above that I will just make a list:

Oliver!
Witness
Glory
Shag
The Matrix (but NOT the sequels)
Galaxy Quest
The Firth Pride and Prejudice
The Thompson Sense and Sensibility
The Root Persuasion
The Paltrow Emma
The Little Mermaid
Aladdin
All of the X-Men
All of Harry Potter
Seabiscuit
The Commitments
Master and Commander
And all 3 seasons of Arrested Development!

Oops. I thought it was listed in my first post. Yeah, What about Bob? is really a classic.

Sliding Doors
Shakespeare in Love
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Good Will Hunting

ETA: Sneakers!

on the serenityfirefly front, I watched some of the series when it was originally on tv, and hadn't seen it since until about a month and a half ago when scifi channel did a marathon. I was going to watch serenity over spring break but I forgot, so I'm going to watch it this summer.

Yeah. Fox completely screwed the series over when it was originally aired. The Pilot, which is supposed to introduce you to the characters wasn't shown until the end of the series, and it got that magic time that gets shifted around so much.

Have you ever realized that a lot of the series on Fox have problems?

Oh gosh... I think all of my favorite comedies have been listed so I'll take a different approach to the question. I've been known to tell tons of people that the following movies are "Must See" based on their social commentary/historical importance/overall amazingness:

Schindler's List
Braveheart
Saving Private Ryan
Hotel Rwanda
Blood Diamond

*Disclaimer: I think all of them are rated R, not intended for the younger folks in here but check them out when you're older*

#18 suge:
What are you on about? You are not old! Crazy, though, clearly. Let's readjust your self image, shall we? :)
I wasn't meaning "Aquamarine" just for the teen members, though I suppose it came across that way.

#23 MrA:
Hehehe! We'll just ask you something like this: Did you like Aquamarine's highlights? Would you want some like that in your hair? Really, now, answer that! :)

#27 foggi:
I loved "Dead Poet's Society," LOTR, and POTC. Also enjoyed "Hook" (am a Robin Williams fan). And I have "Finding Neverland"!

Okay, these are some movies I love that no one around here will watch with me. I already hate watching movies by myself, but around here you get put down pretty severely for wasting electricity if you watch a movie by youself, so I sadly never get to watch these movies though I love them:
Ever After
A Knight's Tale
Little Women
Lord of the Rings (all three :(
Marie Antoinette
Mona Lisa Smile
Pride and Prejudice
Titanic
Tristan & Isolde
Troy

Some movies I want to see, some of which are not yet released:
The Other Boleyn Girl
Inkheart
Prince Caspian
Twilight

Okay, Twilight and Prince Caspian are on my TBW list. I had forgotten about those.

And, Kerian, if I didn't live thousands of miles away from you, I would love to come over and watch most of those movies with you!

38 : K: I can't wait to see all of those not released movies! Great list.

Many of your other ones we can have a group watch on, then you won't be watching alone :) I loved the first 5 and of course, P&P!

ETA: 38

#39 foggi:
Thanks! Wish I could watch them with you! :)

#40 compski:
Good idea if anyone else likes them. I can't imagine us not watching P&P! So many Austen fans. :)

Oh dear I apologize if I repeat items and this list will only ever be partial.

I strongly second the suggestion of Miyazaki
Austen Adaptations
Princess Bride

I add:
Room with A View
The Lives of Others (German Film got an Academy award)
Wings of Desire (also German)
Amelie (French)

**Warning all those may have some nudity which I find preferable in a non gratuitous context to our American acceptance of seeing hideous violent torture in film)

Kurosawa films my favorites are Hidden Fortress (where Lucas stole from for Star Wars) and Ikuru (Japanese)

Wow I didn't realize so many of my favorite films are foreign.

Charade (Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn)
A Passage to India
Singing in the Rain
Master and Commander
Waiting for Guffman
I Capture the Castle (but the book is MUCH better)
Buena Vista Social Club (beautiful documentary)
The Third Man (Best black and white film!)
The Flame Trees of Thika
Strictly Ballroom
Rear Window
Lawrence of Arabia
Bridge on the River Kwai
Napoleon Dynamite ( I grew up an hour away from there believe me it is like that I knew people with llamas and a kid with a perm)
The Snowman (animated Raymond Briggs)
A Child's Christmas in Wales (With Denholm Eliot)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Ooh and much support for Firefly it had such potential for a series grrr.

>#42: lol....picturing Mar in Napoleon Dynamite *shakes head*

I'll second Wings of Desire. Even the American remake was good, but the original was something else.

And i'll add Drowning By Numbers, which i'm pretty sure hasn't been mentioned yet.

Wings of Desire is one of my all-time fav movies.

No one has mentioned Big Lewbowski yet. I love that film.

Kinda covered when you said all Coen movies, lg, but i'll mention two specifically: Fargo and Miller's Crossing.

"what's all the rumpus?"

And i'll add The Piano and the South Park movie.

42: I concur with I Capture the Castle, good movie, excellent book.

Wings of Desire! *sparkly hearts* That was my first date movie with my hubby. :o)

#42 Room with a View was on my list. That's one of my all time favorite movies.

It certainly seems like we'll have no shortage of movies to watch when we finish with the HP movies!

mmmm, and i have I Capture The Castle on my TBR pile, and i've never seen the movie. Potential, potential.

Sorry Bib I apologized in advance for duplicates I think I wore out the video version and now have the DVD special edition so I can watch it again and again.

Mssrs. Merchant and Ivory could sure make films.

I am glad so many people love Wings of Desire. I find it comforting film. And who doesn't want Peter Falk as either a grandfather or a former angel.

MrA The book is so much better than the movie because you just fall in love with the narrator which can't happen in the movie but I enjoyed the movie too.

Millers Crossing is awesome.

TeenAuthor over on GD reminded me of one of my all time favs: Harold & Maude.

suge, Pay It Forward makes me cry at least every fifteen minutes or so throughout, and then at the end, I go into the wracking sobs until I can't breathe. cathartic.

adding to the list:

Love, Actually

Rear Window

Accepted

Muppets movies (Take Manhattan, Great Muppet Caper, Muppet Movie, Treasure Island, etc)

I love all those movies aglaia! For me Love, Actually is the catartic movie where I cry every 15 minutes. In particular Laura Linney and her brother make me cry, it reminds me of parts of my marriage. (Believe it or not, they weren't the worst parts.) I have some other go to movies for catharsis:

The Notebook
A Walk to Remember
the CBC (broadcast on PBS here) version of Anne of Green Gables and Anne the Sequel (but not the last one, that was not good).

For a long time I had my movies divided into 4 categories:

Movies that make me cry
Movies that have hot guys
Movies that make me cry and have hot guys
and
Movies that neither make me cry nor have hot guys.

#50 I wasn't accusing you of stealing, more I was excited to see it on someone else's list too.

wait, was there a third Anne of Green Gables movie in that series? I only knew of two.

#54 Yes. Gilbert goes to war and when he gets hurt Anne leaves the kids with Diana and goes to Europe to find him. It just didn't feel like L.M. Montgomery to me. Granted, I have yet to finish reading the series, but I don't think this ever happened.

*POTENTIAL SPOILER: foreshadowing about Pay It Forward*

53: biblio, "Love, Actually" does that to me, too, but in a less tragic sort of way. they're mostly tears of happiness and hope, where for Pay It Forward, *some* of them are, but mostly it's me pre-crying about the end every time I come to love Trevor just a little bit more.

#55 no, that doesn't happen in the books in any way, shape, or form.

Wow, I've seen a lot of these movies. :)
The Karate Kid is another one that is really good.

I want to add A Series of Unfortunate Events based on the books by Lemony Snicket. It was really well done.

The other night I remembered On A Clear Day. It's excellent.

as I was reminded today, everyone must see west side story and footlose, whether in movie or play form, at least once in their life.

west side story = theatre (one of the few times in my life)
footloose = movie.

I feel pretty, i feel pretty...

I feel pretty, and witty, and GAAAAY!

#62-63 - And I piteeeee, any boys who they should meet todaaaay!

I had my kids watch West Side Story after Romeo and Juliet. I must have told them a hundred times, Tony's gonna die, and STILL there was a puddle of inconsolable tears at the end of the movie.

#64 - JP, that's cos it's so saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!!!! :-(

I haven't seen West Side Story, but now I want to.

I'd add Sabrina to a list of must-sees. I prefer the newer version (Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond), but I know the older version has its own share of die-hard fans.

Just came back from seeing Leatherheads. It was okay, I don't know if I would call it a must see. George Clooney did his best Stewart/Grant imitation, sometimes well, sometimes not so well. There were some great laugh out loud moments, and at other times it was really slow. However, at no point did George Clooney not look completely delicious, so that might be worth the price of admission right there. :)

In no particular order:

August Rush
Harry Potter :)
The Princess Bride (just saw that movie again! I forgot how much I love it.)
LOTR...all the way through extended editions
Footloose
National Treasure (US citizens seem to enjoy them the most)

ETA:
Stick it
She's the Man (kind of a chick-flik, but still soooo funny and wittyish!)

more to come...I just can't think right now!

National Treasure was fairly popular here.

Umm, in my country that is, not just my house. but there too ;)

I need to see the second...I just haven't had time lately.

OH! I'm editing my list now...

I can't believe Raiders of the Lost Ark hasn'tg been mentioned.

will you kill me if I say I've only seen part of that?

I can't believe I forgot about Raiders of the Lost Ark! Just shows how many good movies there are.

I usually count Raiders of the Lost Ark as one of my bridge movies--romance for the ladies and action for the guys. On that list I would also include:
The Princess Bride
Stardust

And now I'm blanking, so I'll come back and fill in as I remember.

You lot make me feel very old - well, I suppose I am very old. Certainly started going to the movies when more of them were B&W than Technicolour and wide screens and surround sound hadn't been invented. So how about:

Citizen Kane
Most of John Ford's westerns
Somebody's said Casablanca but Bogey in the Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon as well.
Marx Brothers - Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera??
Bergman (Ingemar, that is) - the Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries
Garbo's Camille
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Singing in the Rain
Truffaut's A Bout de Souffle
Les Enfants du Paradis
Renoir's La Grande Illusion
High Noon
Red River
etc.
etc.
etc.

Oh yes, and The Magnificent Seven

I feel so young and ignorant!
I don't think I've ever heard of those movies...but then of course you have to take into consideration that I don't get out much. Not really any exposure to movie culture.

*blinks in disbelief*

How could you not know some of these?
High Noon? The Magnificent Seven? Classic western!
Singing in the Rain- Whaddaya think I am, dumb or sumthin'?
Camille- That neck! That cough!
Citizen Kane - Rosebud
The Marx Brothers, A_R! Groucho and company!

Warm up you DVD player and I'll expect a report in the morning. :o)

If you see The Magnificent Seven you should also pick up Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. Magnificent Seven is based on that film.

I've been using The Best Old Movies for Families to pick old (sorry abbotthomas) movies to watch with my kids.

Oh gosh! I forgot to add:
It Happened One Night- Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, walls of Jericho, is that how you dunk your donut?...Now I need to go watch it again.

and Casablanca, and The Big Sleep, even if it was a botch of the book. And the original king kong. And The Third Man was pretty good.

i haven't seem camille, or kane... hmmm...

MrA, what are you still doing up?! Go to bed man, go to bed!

'night! :-D

What do you mean The Third Man was "pretty good"!!! MrA? It was great - secretly I like it better than Citizen Kane. . . waits for shock.

Yes JP it is good to see Magnificent 7 and Seven Samaurai together there is a lot of correlation between Westerns and Kurosawa and Kurosawa was a fan of Westerns.

Still my favorite Kurosawa film is not a Samaurai film but Ikuru which is quiet and beautiful and heartbreaking- about a mid level administrator who discovers he has cancer and cuts through red tape to get a city park built

oh, Japanese films: Hana-Bi and Tampopo.

And as for western-eastern teamings, how about King Lear and Kurosawa's Ran?

And Throne of Blood which is Macbeth.

(I want to see Tampopo)

Wait MrA I thought you were going to get some sleep?

*Looks stern*

Really MrA, I believe it is after 2 a.m. there and it is not the weekend.

*joins in stern look*

*yawns* morning! oh it's afternoon. i'd better get to work.

Mar, "A Taxing Women" was interesting too. same director maybe. I'm too tired to check.

you know you're addicted to LT when...

*waves Hi MrA*

I'll have to check out A Taxing Women