vin_petrol | Your Favourite Film?

I can rarely watch a film all the way through in one sitting these days, but it's nice to have a DVD in or near the player that I can watch in half hour chunks when I get the chance. But I was wondering what to watch. So, in the great tradition of LJ, please recommend me a film. It can be pretty much anything, apart from musicals, which I really don't get on with. Oh, and not SF or World War 2, as I've probably seen every one of those in existence already, and I can probably quote you lines of dialogue from them too :-)

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From:

adamw

I'll start, then: City of God. :)

From:

vin_petrol

Looks like a cheerful evening's viewing there! :-)

From:

adamw

It's exhilarating to watch - although might have been better in the cinema. It's also a damned sight more uplifting than you might think :)

From:

sheepthief.livejournal.com

Sleuth
Delicatessen
Gogs (okay, not a film)
Withnail & I
How To Get Ahead In Advertising
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert
Breaking Glass
Cannibal The Musical
Hitcher
Leon
Deliverance
Duel

From:

vin_petrol

I've seen some of those, but not others. Oddly, I've never managed to see Withnail & I.

I watched Hitcher the day I passed my driving test.

From:

sheepthief.livejournal.com

Oh, and Wings Of Desire (the one with Nick Cave, not the awful remake with Nick Cage, except sometimes I get the titles mixed up).

From:

vin_petrol

Ah, that would be this in: http://imdb.com/title/tt0093191/

From:

inbetween-girl.livejournal.com

On the subject of Nick Cave, 'The Proposition' if it's out on DVD.

From:

wendles

Seconded, Wings of Desire is just beautiful.

The Company of Wolves, if only for the creepy poem over the final credits.
Big Fish, which always makes me weep buckets at the end.
A Matter of Life and Death, also a weepie.

From:

vin_petrol

A Matter of Life and Death

Ooh yes, I must get a copy of this. I really like it, and Trash has *never* seen it. She looks worried every time I tell her she *must* watch it. Every so often I pretty much force her to watch a film, with the promise that I'll do huge amounts of DIY or similar if she truly didn't enjoy it at the end. This worked for It's a Wonderful Life and (oddly) Star Trek IV (the one with the whales), and I can't see how anyone can not like A Matter of Life and Death.

I've never seen Big Fish.

From:

wendles

I've got A Matter of Life and Death and you're very welcome to borrow it, but it's on video not DVD.

From:

vin_petrol

That would be OK. I've got plenty of suggestions, so I'll just pick it up next time we're in close proximity.

From:

inbetween-girl.livejournal.com

The Company of Wolves, if only for the creepy poem over the final credits.

I thought most people's only reason for watching that was Danielle Dax naked. I think it's a great film, though.

From:

wendles

Danielle Dax naked

Well yes, that too; but actually it's the poem that stays with me. And the sailor doll and teddy bear in the forest. [shudder]

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/_pinkdaisy_/

Heathers :)

From:

vin_petrol

Heh - I'm so old I saw that when it first came out! I always liked the JD character, but he's a biker, which is cool...

From:

captainblue.livejournal.com

Terms of Endearment
Titanic
er... wait a minute: it's you!
OK then:

Best Western (not the hotel group): Long Riders
Best General Filum: American Beauty
Best Bond: Goldfinger
Best War Movie: Battle of Britain or Saving Private Ryan (I also liked A Bridge Too Far, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket as well as Air America for a whimsical version)
Best Comedy: Blazing Saddles
Best Sci-Fi: Tricky, but I liked Blade Runner
Best TV to DVD: Band of Brothers
Best Adult Movie: Shaving Ryan's Privates (OK, Best Adult Movie Title then)
Best Road Movie: Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and/or Vanishing Point
Best Cop Movie: Bullitt
Best BritFlick: Lock Stock etc.

From:

vin_petrol

I've never seen Long Riders, and I've heard of Vanishing Point, and it's kinda already on my list of films to see.

Best War Movie? Ooh, are you trying to start a fight! :-) I actually think my favourite is The Longest Day, as it's just so long and rambling, and has Richard Burton in it ("the thing that's always worried me about being one of the few is the way we keep on getting fewer") and Richard Todd ("hold until relieved"). The Battle of Britain is pretty good too.

From:

captainblue.livejournal.com

{nods}

"Long Riders" is about as far removed from your average western as you could get...

From:

vin_petrol

Actually, arguably Apocalypse Now is a war film, but I always see it as an attempt to film Heart of Darkness that just happened to relocate it to the Vietnam war. Still a classic though.

From:

captainblue.livejournal.com

{nods}

From:

inbetween-girl.livejournal.com

I can't remember if you or Derek borrowed Master & Commander, but if it was Derek, then I recommend it to you.

I was going to say "Elvira's Topless Adventures at the Battle of Agincourt", but then I remembered it's not actually a real film.

From:

vin_petrol

I can't remember if you or Derek borrowed Master & Commander, but if it was Derek, then I recommend it to you

It was me, and it was great. I'll drop it back round next time I'm at your place.

I was going to say "Elvira's Topless Adventures at the Battle of Agincourt", but then I remembered it's not actually a real film.

Don't worry, Russ Meyer made plenty of films in a similar vein...

From:

inbetween-girl.livejournal.com

If films exist involving busty women killing French people, why are you asking us for recommendations?

From:

vin_petrol

I thought I should perhaps, you know, broaden my horizons or something :-P

From:

inbetween-girl.livejournal.com

How ambitious!

From:

brain-hurts.livejournal.com

Blazing Saddles.

From:

vin_petrol

Seen it, but not for a long time. I might have to locate a copy.

From:

wiseoldbob.livejournal.com

In order to watch a film all the way through you need something like 'flu or a heavy cold that immobalizes yo for a day or so. then armed with a hot water bottle and a pile of snotties, with the central heatiing on the Max (thats +1Degrees C in our house) you can relax in front o the box with:

Ryans Daughter
Jean de Florette & Manons des Sources (back to back)
The Man who Never Was
Twelve Angry Men
Sunrise
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Name of the Rose

By which time you'll be feeling all filmed out and will awake the next morning with no cold and no 'flu' neither.

From:

inbetween-girl.livejournal.com

Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources (back to back)

Vin might like that, given that a Frenchman dies in the first one and Emmanuel Beart gets her kit off in the second one.

From:

vin_petrol

I do have a rule of awful films, which goes something like "no film that contains a woman with nice boobies can ever be truly bad."

Canonical example: http://imdb.com/title/tt0079946/

From:

vin_petrol

In order to watch a film all the way through you need something like 'flu or a heavy cold that immobalizes yo for a day or so

Heh - I currently have a small toddler in the house, so Daddy lying on the sofa would just be an interesting new climbing frame to be tried out :-)

I don't think I've seen any of those films, so I'll try them all at some point.

From:

evil-girlie666.livejournal.com

I think you should get "Razorblade Smile", the cheesiest so-bad-its-good British gothie vampire film ever *nods*. It features Eileen Daly (ex porno actress I believe) acting worse than you can possibly imagine, running around in lots of skintight latex and shooting people. The dialogue veers between "actually quite sharp and funny" to "unintentionally funny". They have Curve and the Bauhaus on the soundtrack. It was made for about 50p (they famously had to change the script to allow vampires to go about by daylight as they simply couldn't afford the film for a night shoot, and the furniture in "Lilith Silver, millionairess vampire assassin"'s flat is from MFI and wobbles. As does she.) It's truly adorable film for all the wrong reasons, and certainly fulfills your "women with nice boobies" criteria for making a bad movie worth watching *nods*.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159693/

I also recommend highly recommend Orgazmo, an early Trey Parker (yes of Southpark fame) movie which features a Mormon porno super-hero, is definitely one of the strangest films I've ever seen but also one of the sweetest, and VERY very funny.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124819/

Sticking with the superhero theme (and what's more appropriate with X-Men 3 being trailered all over the place at the moment eh), I'd also recommend Mystery Men (comedy-crap superheros fight nasty 70s supervillain despite overpowering odds and complete ridicule) or The Specials (blackly comedy-crap superheros who're so cynical and embittered they care more about their merchandising rights and lovelives than saving the world), and of course, if you haven't seen it yet, you really should get your hands on The Incredibles, you can kid on you're buying it for Evie while actually watching it yourself, it has more superhero sass, spark and style than most of the "proper" comicbook hero films put together *nods*.

The Incredibles: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317705/
The Specials: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181836/
Mystery Men: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132347/

On the subject of animation, Spirited Away is a magical little film, which again I'm quite sure will be a good investment for the lil' un too.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/

Oh! And going back to Trey Parker! You MUST watch Team America, World Police, it's abso-frickin-lutely EXCELLENT *nods*
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372588/

I could go on, you know..... I really like films LOTS....... V for Vendetta and Sin City are both completely rockin' dark comicbook adaptations.....

Sin City - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401792/
V for Vendetta - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/

..... my fave romantic movie ever (though in a surreal and very bittersweet way) is The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it's quirky, sweet and funny as well as very sad, all at the same time, I think it's a totally flawless piece of clever film-making and quite unique, I could watch it endlessly...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/

..... and though I know you said "No Musicals", how about a black comedy post-op-transexual Punk Raawwwwwk! musical with a sharp, insightful, funny-as-hell script and some of the BEST rock tunes you'll ever hear in a movie? Hedwig and the Angry Inch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248845/ is really, really entertaining and is "The Musical folk who don't even like musicals still generally love"....

OK I'll shut up now :-)