A lot of movies only seem good at the time--or for the first time. Which ones hold up best for you?
Here is my list.
DOUBLE INDEMNITY
GOODFELLAS
CASABLANCA
BRINGING UP BABY
REAR WINDOW, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, VERTIGO
A CHRISTMAS STORY
GROUNDHOG DAY
SOME LIKE IT HOT
MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
RIO BRAVO
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
27 comments:
Good list, Patti. I would add The Graduate and A Fish Called Wanda.
And I can watch the three Bourne movies and both Men In Blacks anytime. I can pick any of them up at any point and enjoy as much of them as I have time to watch on the fly. Can't help myself!
Very nice list. Sometimes movies also just date well. I'm a big fan of the very 1960s CHARADE, the very 1970s NASHVILLE and the very 1980s DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS.
Of older movies I think noir and screwball generally age well. Big issue movies kind of have no choice but to age poorly.
Good list altho I have never cared for Rio Bravo.
I would add:
The Godfather 1 &2
Bladerunner
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Big Lebowski
Psycho
Road Warrior
Pulp Fiction
The Big Sleep
The 400 Blows
Patti - I do like those movies! I'd add Shadow of a Doubt, too.
How could I forget The Road Warrior, and Escape from New York? (Okay, they're guy flicks, I know.)
Sunset Boulevard
Buth Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Maltese Falcon
Animal House
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Die Hard (the original)
Those are the ones that jump out at me, along with several that have been mentioned already.
Excellent list, Patti. I'm not sure about GOODFELLAS but the rest really work for me too.
I'd add:
IT'S A GIFT
TWO FOR THE ROAD
ANNIE HALL
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY...
THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
ANIMAL HOUSE
CHARADE
Jeff M.
Good to see some of mine were mentioned above.
Jackie wants to add:
INDEPENDENCE DAY (you would not believe how often she watches that)
GONE WITH THE WIND
CAPTAIN NEWMAN, M.D.
Jeff M.
My list would be very different.
Alien, Aliens, The Thing (Carpenter), Once Upon a Time in the West, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Road Warrior.
PULP FICTION
STAR WARS
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
CHINATOWN
TAXI DRIVER
TOY STORY (ALL THREE)
For me, the test is whether the movie comes on TV and do I watch it or change the channel. In this household we will watch again most of the movies you list. However, we will always watch the Bourne movies, the Fugative, the Godfather 1 & 2 and Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth playing Mr. Darcy even if we catch them in mid-play. In fact, the women in this family have memorized all of the lines in Pride & Prejudice.
Some films on my list are already taken but here are a few more that still hold up for me: SOUND OF MUSIC, SUPERMAN-I (Reeve), PLANET OF THE APES (Heston), BEN-HUR, THE UNTOUCHABLES, THE DIRTY DOZEN, TOMBSTONE, all of LAUREL & HARDY, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, RATATOUILLE, GANDHI (Attenborough), THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, and BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID.
All great choices. Captain Newman MD. Was that Gregory Peck and Tony Curtis? I don't think I've seen that since it came out. I think I have seen the Godfather 1&2 too many times. But I might add THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, and ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN.
Yes, Patti, Gregory Peck and Tony Curtis. But also Bobby Darin (who had a Best Supporting Actor nomination), Eddie Arnold, Robert Duvall, and Angie Dickinson.
Favorite Tony Curtis line: "In the neighborhood I cam from, you had to know six languages to do business."
Jeff M.
THE THING (From Another World) - the original. I never get tired of watching this - it always works for me.
THE COURT JESTER with Danny Kaye.
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY with Danny Kaye.
THE GHOSTBREAKERS with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard.
THE WIND AND THE LION with Sean Connery and Candice Bergen.
THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER with Bette Davis and Monty Woolley.
THE PIRATE with Gene Kelly and Judy Garland.
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN
THE THIN MAN (I'll be watching this weekend.)
...among others.
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN - definitely.
The movies that seem timeless to me tend to be kid's movies, like THE WIZARD OF OZ or CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Movies that aren't really like anything else and can never be duplicated.
Good point. Movies you love as a child loves, can never grow old.
A few more:
MY COUSIN VINNY
THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES (Jackie's favorite Abbott & Costello movie)
AMERICAN HOT WAX
THE COMMITMENTS
MEN IN BLACK (1 only)
THE WIZARD OF OZ
Jeff M.
The Pope of Greenwich Village
Barfly
Cinema Paradiso
Revolutionary Road
Head-On
Popeye!
and most of what you had there, Patti ... love them all, although I'd add about a dozen foreign flicks if I could remember all their names (or how to spell them). Head-On is one. I'm sure I"m forgetting a few of my other favorites ...
I loved POPEYE but know no one else who did. CP is paradise for a film lover. Me, too. I have a few foreign ones on my best of the year list.
My rule of thumb is "Is this a movie that, if I come across it while channel-surfing, I will continue to watch it no matter what?" For me, those movies are:
MOONSTRUCK
ANNIE HALL (well, really, almost any pre-MANHATTAN Woody Allen movies)
ANIMAL HOUSE
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
JAWS
THE WOMEN (original version, of course)
ALL ABOUT EVE
Foreign? Here are a few French titles:
DAY FOR NIGHT
SMALL CHANGE
THE 400 BLOWS (all Truffaut)
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Cocteau)
GRAND ILLUSION (Renoir)
THE WAGES OF FEAR
LES DIABOLIQUES (both Clouzot)
Jeff M.
OMG, I cannot believe I forgot ALL ABOUT EVE, which I put in the same category as Deb. Thanks for reminding me.
Jeff M.
Yes, ANNIE HALL for sure. ALL ABOUT EVE-just not a Bette Davis fan but I appreciate its merits.
The Maltese Falcon
Murder, My Sweet
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
The Thin Man
The Searchers
The French Connection
Battleground
The Dirty Dozen
Any Three Stooges short with Curly
Bataan
Shane
I'm sure I could think of many more if I took the time.
The General
Modern Times
The Maltese Falcon
The Third Man
Vertigo
The Godfather
Casablanca
Some Like It Hot
Metropolis
Z - The Movie
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Alien
Pulp Ficti0n
American History X
Dr. Strangelove
The Shawshank Redemption
Die Hard
Dirty Harry
Psycho
Nosferatu
The Wizard of Oz
Lord Of The Rings
Gladiator
Rocky
Once Upon a Time in the West
Forrest Gump
Seven Samurai
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