Must Watch Movies. Tell me, for I must know.
October 29, 2010 5:42 AM   Subscribe

Creating a media hub. Looking for "must have" movies...go nutty!

I recently built a monster of a new machine, and it's sitting on something like 4TB of free drive space. I'd like to put together a really great movies/music/whatever collection so that we've got the best of the best at our fingertips all the time.

We do our TV this way too, and I've got that sorted, but I'm always looking for suggestions of TV shows, seasons in particular.

So tell me what movies I should have. This is freeform. Go wild. We also have a little one due in about 6 weeks (yay! Little man Melee!), so kids movies will be accepted to. I'm fairly anti-Disney since about 1998, but again, I'll consider anything.

I can generate a list of what I already have, and will if anyone requests it, but I'd just like to see your recommendations.
posted by TomMelee to Media & Arts (33 answers total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
What kind of movies do you like? If you're just for the movies you should have, then I'd start with the AFI and BFI top 100 lists.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 5:47 AM on October 29, 2010


I recognize you're anti-Disney but does that extend to Pixar? ALL of the Pixar movies are stellar. Lilo & Stitch, in particular, does not get the love it deserves. But all the rest are great, too.
posted by cooker girl at 5:53 AM on October 29, 2010


80s classics can't be beat.

The Back to the Future Trilogy
The Goonies
The first three Indiana Jones Movies
posted by TooFewShoes at 5:54 AM on October 29, 2010


Response by poster: Oh that's the whole point, AH. I like a wide variety of stuff, and I very much dislike a lot of what garners praise at the box office. I'm leaning on MeFi for some insight, what with you all being an intelligent, artsy, and extremely sarcastic and lolsy group.

Me? I love American Beauty and really really hated The Other Guys. I also thought Avatar was silly eyecandy. Love Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Loved Rambo IV and The Expendables. Also love To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm the only guy I know who loved Punchdrunk Love, one of the few I know who disliked Being John Malkovich. See where this is going? I'm all over the place. I'm optimistic of a threat that's all

"OMG ROBOCOP!"
"You absolutely must have Amelie!"
etc.
posted by TomMelee at 5:55 AM on October 29, 2010


Response by poster: oops. "Optimistic of a threaD that's all..." Someone wanna clean that up?
posted by TomMelee at 5:56 AM on October 29, 2010


The Milagro Beanfield War
This Is Spinal Tap
Grand Canyon
Toy Story 1 & 2 (and 3, if you liked it)
Dazed and Confused
Colors
American History X
Halloween (the original)

These are my favorites, but hey, you asked!

Oh, and I also loved Steel Magnolias and Terms of Endearment, but that may be asking too much...
posted by sundrop at 6:03 AM on October 29, 2010


Breaker Morant
posted by joyride at 6:06 AM on October 29, 2010


Why not work with a list which is voted for by the general public? If that sounds sensible to you then I would recommend starting at the IMDb top 250.

Top five films currently are "Shawshank Redemption", "Godfather", "Godfather II", "Inception" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Doesn't seem like a bad start to me.
posted by mr_silver at 6:09 AM on October 29, 2010


With enormous storage capacity comes enormous responsibility. It is incumbent on you to get the great serial films of the last decade:

The Wire
Deadwood
The Sopranos
Six Feet Under
Breaking Bad
etc.
posted by Beardman at 6:09 AM on October 29, 2010 [2 favorites]


Here's a scattershot list for you.

if...
Withnail & I
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Sting
Cool Hand Luke
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Seven Samurai
Psycho
Rififi
A Clockwork Orange
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Dog Day Afternoon
Network
Straw Dogs
Brazil
Mulholland Dr.
Rushmore
posted by Dr-Baa at 6:13 AM on October 29, 2010


"Indie"/Foreign
Delicatessen
Koyaanisqatsi
Dreams (Kurosawa)
Do the Right Thing
Fight Club
Brazil
Blue Velvet
Rivers and Tides
Shaolin Soccer
The Fast Runner
Reservoir Dogs
the Royal Tennenbaums
Magnolia
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Raise the Red Lantern
Dazed and Confused
This Is Spinal Tap
Spellbound (documentary)
Microcosmos
Burnt by the Sun
Betty Blue
The Killer

Classics
Lawrence of Arabia
Star Wars
It's a Wonderful Life
The Wizard of Oz
The Manchurian Candidate
The Conversation
Blow Up
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Deer Hunter
Solaris (1972)
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Rear Window
2001: A Space Odyssey

Kids
Cars
Kiki's Delivery Service
Ponyo
Finding Nemo
Spirited Away
The Black Stallion
Mary Poppins
posted by cocoagirl at 6:15 AM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


The Big Lebowski
Miller's Crossing
Lord of the Rings
2001: A Space Odyssey
MST3K collections
Midnight Run
posted by theredpen at 6:23 AM on October 29, 2010


NSFW: Deep Indulgence.

Before the Rain

CowBoy Bebop

Hardware

Everything by Hayao Miyazaki. EVERYTHING.

Firefly

Trainspotting

Pirates of the Caribbean. No, not the second one, just the first one.

First two seasons of Grey's Anatomy

No Country for Old Men

Let the Right One In

21 Grams

Magnolia

Persepolis

Memento

Million Dollar Baby

Silence of the Lambs

Casablanca

28 Days Later and the sequel, 28 Months Later

Pitch Black and its sequel, Chronicles of Riddick

Cloverfield

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Traffic

Punch Drunk Love

The Three Colors Triology

Catch Me if you can

Amelie

Pan's Labyrinth

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

City of God

Cruel Intentions
posted by nomadicink at 6:23 AM on October 29, 2010


Hit up your local library and check out what they have. You might find some gems there.

Here's my massive "must have" list from my system, which is not complete:

Beverly Hills Cop
Bourne Series
*ALL* of Clint Eastwood's movies
Die Hard series
Evil Dead series
Silence of the Lambs
Indiana Jones series
*ALL* of the James Bond
Lord of the rings, of course
Mad Max
Matrix 1
Star Wars
Terminator
The Mummy 1 & 2
20,000 leagues under the sea
28 days later
2001
Clockwork Orange
History of Violence
Alien and Aliens
American Psycho
Apocalypse Now
Batman Begins + Dark Knight
Behind Enemy Lines
Blade Runner, final director's cut
Brazil, director's cut
Bullitt
Butch Cassidy and the Sundace Kid
Casablanca
Chinatown
Christine
Close Encounters 3rd kind
Cloverfield
Conan The Destoryer
Dark City
Deliverance
District 9
Dogma
Duel
East Rider
Enemy of the state
Equilibrium
Esapce from New York and L.A.
Fargo
Fletch and Fletch Lives
Fried Green Tomatoes
Full Metal Jacket
Grelmins
Heat
Inside Man
Invasion fo the Body Snatchers (both versions)
K-Pax
MASH (either the orignal or the series)
Memento
Men In Black (1st one, not the second)
My Own Private Idaho
Night at the Museum
No country for Old Men
Ocean's Eleven (both if you want, but the remake is good)
Old Yeller
On Golden Pond
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Paper Moon
Paris Texas
Predator
Primer
Pulp Fiction
Rain Man
Ronin
Saving Private Ryan
Scareface
Se7en
Shaun of the Dead
Shutter Island
Sneakers
The 13th floor
The A-Team (original series if you can find it, the movie wasn't bad)
The Big Lebowski
The Color Of Money
Benjamin Buttons
The Day of the Jackel (1973) and the Jackel remake (1997)
The Fifth Element
The French Connection
The Godfather series
The Great Escape
The Hustler
The Mission
The Name of the Rose
The Presitge
The Remains of the Day
The Score
The Silence of the Lambs
The Sting
The Thomas Crown Affair (the Bronson remake)
The Truman Show
The Shining
THE USUAL SUSPECTS - this the the #1 you Must Have.
Time Bandits
Twelve Monkeys
Vertigo
Watchmen
Yellow Submarine
Red October
Red Dawn

ALL of the Monty Pythons, including the tv series
Airplane!
Top Secrete!
Cheech and Chong's stuff
Animal House
Beetlejuice
Big Trouble in Little China
Blazing Saddles (you must have this)
Ferris Bueller
Galaxy Quest
History of the World
My Fellow Americans
Police Academy (the first, not the sequels)
Stripes
The Princess Bride (must have)
This is Spinal Tap
User Cars
Weird Science
Young Frankenstein (that's Fraunkensteen)


TV Shows:
A-Team, Mash, Burn Notice, Castle, Dexter, Dr. Who, Eukea, Jack of All Trades, Brisco County, Warehouse 13, White Collar, Police Squad, and THHGTTG bbc series.
Charlie Brown's holiday stuff, the original unedited versions.
First two Pooh movies
Aladdin (first one)
Pretty much any pre-1995 Disney stuff (Alice, Bambi, Stich, etc)
Batteries not Included
Wallence and Grommit shorts, small movies, and full-length.
Chicken Run
How to Train your Dragon
Madagascar (not the sequel)
Shrek 1 and 2
Spririted Away
The Hobbit (1977 animated)
The Incredibles
The Iron Giant
Nightmare before Christmas
The Wind in the Willows
Up
Wal-E (of course)
Watership Down
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Willy Wonka (original, not remake)

Whew! That list should keep you busy.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 6:26 AM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


Forgot the anime! Some of the more accessible stuff that is suitable for kids:

Kikis' Delivery Service
My Neighbor Totoro
Princes Mononoke
Howel's moving castle
The Last Airbender series (not the crap movie)
posted by Old'n'Busted at 6:29 AM on October 29, 2010


The Science of Sleep
Whats Eating Gilbert Grape
A Beautiful Mind
Short Circuit
Green Mile
Shawshank Redemption
Bad Santa
Little Miss Sunshine
Monster
As Good As It Gets
The Road
Defiance
Toy Story
League of Their Own
SlingBlade
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Groundhog Day

Louis CK - Shameless
Kings of Comedy
Jim Gaffigan - Beyond the Pale
Blue Collar Comedy Tour

Eastbound & Down
Californication
Carnivale
Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Modern Family
Roseanne
The Cosby Show
posted by KogeLiz at 6:46 AM on October 29, 2010


Nobody Knows is probably the best foreign film (Japanese) that I've ever seen. I'm also a big fan of Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse, but those are kind of a love-them-or-hate-them thing.
posted by ferdinandcc at 6:56 AM on October 29, 2010


Response by poster: Loving it so far. Glad to see that I actually already have a surprising number of these. Keep 'em coming!
posted by TomMelee at 7:00 AM on October 29, 2010


N'thing My Neighbor Totoro - - an absolute must.
posted by fairmettle at 7:12 AM on October 29, 2010


TomMelee: "This is freeform. Go wild."

I think you don't understand how AskMe works.
posted by mkultra at 7:16 AM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oops - - should've added Babe to my previous post - - watched it 25+ times with the kids and we never got tired of it.
posted by fairmettle at 7:22 AM on October 29, 2010


I'll give you a couple of each.


General All-Purpose Good Movie: Escape from Alcatraz, The Sting
Suspense: Dial M for Murder, Strangers on a Train
Comedy: Raising Arizona, Slums of Beverly Hills
Relatively Recent Ones That Surprised Me with Their Non-Sucking: In Bruges, Children of Men
Foreign: Lust/Caution, Bad Boy Bubby (if Australia is foreign, and judging by this movie I say it is)
Documentary: Ants: Nature's Secret Power, The Thin Blue Line
Kids: Antz, Yellow Submarine
TV: Six Feet Under, Seinfeld
Ones Your Friends Might Not Have Seen Yet: Wag the Dog, Lars and the Real Girl
Obligatory Coen Bros Shoutout: Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, etc, etc, just get all of them, you can't go wrong.
posted by phunniemee at 7:26 AM on October 29, 2010


You absolutely must have Amelie!
posted by Exchequer at 9:09 AM on October 29, 2010


Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Little Miss Sunshine
Memento
Michael Clayton
Get Him to the Greek
The Departed
posted by Exchequer at 9:10 AM on October 29, 2010


Goodbye Solo
City of God
Maltese Falcon
Breakfast Club
Heat
Pee Wees Big Adventure
posted by jasondigitized at 9:13 AM on October 29, 2010


AGUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES (AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD)
dir. Herzog
BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA
dir. Peckinpah
THE LIMEY
dir. Soderbergh
CÉLINE ET JULIE VONT EN BATEAU (CELINE & JULIE GO BOATING)
dir. Rivette
THE SHOOTING
dir. Hellman
GOODFELLAS
dir. Scorsese
DAWN OF THE DEAD
dir. Romero
BUONO, IL BRUTTO, IL CATTIVO (THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY)
dir. Leone
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
dir. Hitchcock
RAN
dir. Kurosawa
TENI ZABYTYKH PREDKOV (SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS)
dir. Parajanov
GILDA
dir. Vidor
THE LADY EVE
dir. Sturges
I KNOW WHERE I AM GOING
dir. Powell & Pressburger
THE BLADE
dir. Tsui Hark
VERNON, FLORIDA
dir. Morris
RAISING ARIZONA
dir. Coen
SEVEN MEN FROM NOW
dir. Boetticher
THE SEARCHERS
dir. Ford
DU RIFIFI CHEZ LES HOMMES (RIFIFI)
dir. Dassin
posted by cinemafiend at 10:14 AM on October 29, 2010


I like a wide variety of stuff, and I very much dislike a lot of what garners praise at the box office. I'm leaning on MeFi for some insight, what with you all being an intelligent, artsy, and extremely sarcastic and lolsy group.

Well OK then. You could do worse than acquiring the entire Criterion Collection, but here's a short list of movies (and one TV show) that I wouldn't want to live without, for a variety of reasons. I tried to avoid stuff already mentioned, of course.

Chungking Express
Sans Soleil
Cane Toads
Spaced
All That Jazz
Manufactured Landscapes
The Tall Guy
Walkabout
The Double Life of Véronique
Sherlock Jr.
Gun Crazy
Kung Fu Hustle
Out of the Past
Sunrise
Mars Attacks!
Point Blank
Queen Christina
Metropolis [newly restored!]
Pandora's Box
The Prestige
Drunken Master 2
Rosemary's Baby
Annie Hall
Singin in the Rain
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Blues Brothers
Don't Look Now
Heathers
posted by Joey Bagels at 10:29 AM on October 29, 2010


Old'n'Busted's list is excellent. Ill add some more I didn't see posted...

Wall Street
Swingers (and thus Made)
Tombstone
Anchorman
Old School
Wedding Crashers
The Beach
Sideways
Forest Gump
Risky Business
Braveheart
Sin City
The Sixth Sense
The Village
The Graduate
Snatch
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

And I'll reiterate, ALL of the James Bond movies
posted by Arbitrage1 at 11:26 AM on October 29, 2010


I would get a book like the Time Out Film Guide and go from there. Not only do they have capsule reviews of just about everything, but some editions include a list of top films voted on by the industry and by the public.

Also, I have a really big refrigerator and would like to put some food in it. Suggestions?
posted by Kafkaesque at 11:27 AM on October 29, 2010


Kafkaesque: Also, I have a really big refrigerator and would like to put some food in it. Suggestions?

Fried Green Tomatoes
Ratatouille
Bananas
Meatballs
Soylent Green
Duck Soup

posted by mkultra at 12:45 PM on October 29, 2010 [1 favorite]


Oh, some more for the list:

Wizards (1977)
Tron (so you know wtf the December movie is about)
Heist (2000) - compliments The Score really well.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Jerk (this is shit, this is shinola)

And mkultra now owes me a new keyboard.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 4:34 PM on October 29, 2010


sorry for the threadjack care to share your media center build?
posted by knockoutking at 9:28 PM on October 29, 2010


Response by poster: S'not a media center, per se. It's more of a server.

Quad core Phenom 3.2 w/ auto-overclock as high as 3.8-4ghz per channel. Currently only 4gb of ddr3 10666 (waiting for a price drop), 1 sata3 1Tb, 1 sata2 2Tb, and a couple other random smaller drives, 500Gb or so, able to hotswap over usb3, although I don't currently use them. Really, this is my "work" computer, running several VM's (1 for quickbooks, one for dev, etc.) Whole mess is inside an aluminum coolermaster I liberated from a university surplus warehouse....which is probably the most valuable piece overall, lol.

Stream using a combination of ps3 media server and win7 homegroup to the TV and 3 laptops respectively.

So no, not a media center.
_______________________________________________
Otherwise, thanks for all the recommendations everyone! Time to start getting some content.
posted by TomMelee at 5:07 AM on October 30, 2010


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