Your favorite movie of all time...

[daglob]

We discussed what we thought was the worst movie of all time, but what about your favorite?

Mine is Casablanca. It's just everything about it, that's all. I've lost my copy on VHS (and anyway the VCR is on the fritz), but before Mother's Day, they had a bunch of romance movies and romantic comedies for sale at Walmart, and I got Casablanca on DVD (as well as Man's Favorite Sport, and Charade; I missed out on The Thrill of it All and a  couple of others). Since I knew I was going to be laid up for a day after the epidural, I saved it. It is still, in my opinion, the greatest movie of all time.

Other opinions?

[kkhohoho]

Seven Samurai. Foreign language be damned, that movie is still amazing to this day. It's got action, drama, character, philosophy, Toshiro Mifune, a host of other talents besides, and it's got the late great Akira Kurosawa at the helm. It's more than just a fantastic movie though. (Though it certainly is that.) It's what really got me to break out of my comfort zone; to watch other kinds of films and let myself be exposed to all sorts of new and different things other than what I was used to. It had a heck of an impact on me, to put it lightly. More than just being an amazing film, it also has a special place in my heart, which I can't really say about that many movies or much of anything really. The only thing I've really got to knock against it is its' length. The sucker is over 3 hours long, though it doesn't hurt the film at all. It doesn't waste a single second of its' run time, so you're never feeling bored. The only problem is that it means I usually have to watch it in two sittings, but what can you do? Magnificent Seven (the foreign remake,) is also very good, but Seven Samurai still edges it out for me, and I don't think I'm the only one who feels the same.

[Podmark]

Ghostbusters.

[detourne_me]

2001: A Space Odyssey here, or T2: Judgement Day. Surprisingly in both of them there is a theme of humanity vs technology, and technology becoming more human. Both of them had groundbreaking special effects, amazing scores and a glimmer of optimism in the face of a bleak future.

[SickAlice]

I think I told you as much but I'm best friends with Paul Henreid's daughter and granddaughter, like they're pretty much family. I rented and lived in Paul's ancestral home in Montana and can regale a few interesting stories for you sometime if you'd like.

On topic I really don't have a favorite as much as a handful of most liked. Out of them though I can say Mindwalk by Bernt Capra had the sinlge largest impact on my real life. It's available for free online now and anyone should watch it. Else Enemy Mine, Nightmare Before Christmas, Leaving Las Vegas, Mulholland Drive and Repo! The Genetic Opera off the top of my head.

To make things even more fun Monica Henreid ended up dating Louis Gossett Jr. from Enemy Mine so I got to know him as well. He's actually the person who bought me my Wacom tablet for my birthday as well he sent me some odd mushroom coffee, which was actually pretty good stuff.

[Tomato]

This is going to sound kinda weird, but my favorite film has always been Galaxy Quest. I know it's not technically the most ambitious or have the most action, and I'm not even enough of a star trek fan that I get all the jokes... but at the same time, I feel like it's one of those rare comedies that juggles poking fun at the tropes in Star Trek/Science Fiction, but isn't offensive about it. Like... it's so easy to dip into fan-bashing with that type of film, but with Galaxy Quest, if you're a fan you honestly feel more included than attacked, if that makes sense.

To give a better idea of what I mean, compare it to The Superhero Movie. That movie... I saw it in theaters, I was super excited to see it when I was younger (this was before Marvel Studios really blew open the floodgates of superhero films being mainstream, and I hadn't been exposed to the scary movie franchise.) but from the opening scene, which features the not-spiderman viewpoint character getting bullied by an entire busload of people... the entire movie is just this frat boy mindset of "look at how stupid this is, but we'll throw in as many nonsense references as we can because that's funny right." which left a sour taste in my mouth I carry to this day.

I guess on some level I feel like Galaxy Quest taps into that old school type of parody we don't really see from hollywood anymore, such as "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" "Spaceballs" and the like.

[daglob]

Lots of good stuff. Recently got a copy of The Magnificent Seven; hadn't seen it in years (decades?). I don't believe I've ever seen Seven Samurai all the way through at one sitting (bits and pieces at different times).

Everyone has mentioned great movies; Ghostbusters, Enemy Mine, Nightmare Before Christmas, 2001, Galaxy Quest, T2...

If I had to pick a second favorite, I'd be hard pressed; so many to choose: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Maltese Falcon, The Bride of Frankenstein, Gorgo, A Night at the Opera, Harvey, Arsenic and Old Lace. The Caine Mutiny... then again, I can watch most anything with Bogart, even Doctor X.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I'm not one for picking favorites.  The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance is definitely on my list.  I've only seen it once so far, but Twelve Angry Men (the original film) ranks up there too.  Up for more modern movies.  I think it may be the best film made in recent memory.  Dr. Horrible's Sing Along may not technically qualify, but it's close enough.

Oh, and Tomato
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AffectionateParody

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

A story about Galaxy Quest, Jonathan Frakes watched it and loved it, then tried to get Patrick Stewart to watch it.  He refused at first, because he assumed they would be mocking Start Trek and he wouldn't stand for that, but eventually he gave in.  It is now one his favorite movies.  Apparently nearly everyone involved in Star Trek loves it.

[Deaths Jester]

I've got quite a few favorites but the one that really stands out for me is Roger Corman's Fall of the House of Usher with Vincent Price. Vincent really gets into the character of Rodrick while Corman and crew do some amazing camera work with the house and mood building. Aside from that one, I love most anything Price, Lugosi, Karloff, Lee, Campbell, or Cushing are in along with stuff like The Wild Bunch, Magnifecent Seven (the original with Yul), Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from New York, Blazing Saddles, any Monty Python movie, Young Frankenstien...the list goes on and on...

[Shogunn2517]

I gotta say, if I'm not naming a Star Wars movie, there are a few that I old dear.

Pleasantville  A lot about this movie just gets me on a whole different level.  First there is the "Fantasy Land wish fulfillment" we all have done from both, and particularly on this site.  We've all wished or dreamed or otherwise thought about ourselves, as we are in a fantastic environment we've seen in sci-fi and fantasy.  Whether it be Tatooine or Middle Earth or Atlanta suburbs during the Zombie Apocalypse.  That's the premise that Pleasantville starts with and as a genre fan, I totally got it.  But the movie went to so much more, the effects at the time were magic. but what capture me wasn't just the story itself, but the subtext and social allusions that made it connect that much more.  Told the story of the changing of society to racial and social strife that defined the time and it's authoritarian ends.  But every time I watch that court room scene, it really it's me.  What Tobey McGuire and William H. Macy did in that scene was magic and for whatever reason, it touches me every. Single. Time.

It's certainly a departure from films I typically like and watch.

There are a few more.  Particularly movies from my childhood(teenage years included) that I can just turn my brain off and watch whenever I see it on or put it on.  Weird Science, Pulp Fiction, Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon.  But another movie that when I watch, I feel an emotional attachment to it that stirs when I watch, The Contender.  Politics of it aside, which struck a strong chord in me, but the fabric of the movie, if you don't know it was her refusal to address the scandal she was being charged with.  Her answer was beautiful, that it was beneath her dignity to even respond and to actually respond would be to assume it was okay for it to even be asked in the first place and how she stood on conviction.  "Principles only mean something when you stick by them when they're inconvenient."  Powerful lesson that was taught in that movie.  Whether you're Republican or Democrat or heck, you don't even have to like politics.  But given the political environment we're in the midst of today, it's certain a lesson well learned.

[Cyber Burn]

@SickAlice: Count me on the list for "Repo: The Genetic Opera".

But all time favorite, "The Usual Suspects". I've lost count as to how many times I've watched that one, and it never disappoints.

[HarryTrotter]

Tought question...different movies are great in different ways.We cant really compare Galaxy Quest and Seven Samurai.
Randomly,a few favorites that werent mentioned,in no real order: Brutal Tales of Chivalry,Jackie Brown,Desperado,Big Lebowski,Boondock Saints;Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels;Mean Machine,Lost boys,Heat,Bottle Rocket,Ballad of Cable Hogue...

[daglob]

Yeah, there are always a lot of movies you like for different reasons. I like a movie called We're No Angels, which is not the 1989 movie, but usually around Christmas. I'd pull it out, along with Donovan's Reef and The Bishop's Wife, and watch them all a couple of weeks before Christmas. I'd watch Arsenic and Old Lace, The Last Man on Earth, The Raven (I have two or three by that title, but always the one with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Lorre), and all the old Universal monster movies around Halloween... I remember when you only caught these on the late-night schlock-fest Friday or Saturday night. I mean, Casablanca may be my favorite movie, but Forbidden Planet is my favorite SF movie, A Night at the Opera is my favorite comedy, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is my favorite western (although McLintock comes close), and so on. I love all those old silly 1950s SF and monster movies, lots of old detective movies, just about any western with John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart, any movie period with Humphrey Bogart, Clint Eastwood, or Cary Grant, the Thin Man series, My Man Godfrey, Twelve Angry Men, Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, Silverado, Damn Yahkees, a couple of lesser known movies like The Great Man, and Panic in the Streets. I've watched A Face in the Crowd, but it makes me want to take a baseball bat to Andy Griffith's character... much rather watch No Time for Sergeants. Even at that, I'm leaving out a whole lot of wonderful movies...

There are a couple of movies off the top of my head, Lady Satan, Beat the Devil, that I couldn't tell you why I like them or if they are even good movies in the first place. I've often thought that Lady Satan was made up as they went along.  Then, of course, you have Rio Bravo, El Dorado, and Rio Lobo... kind of like one movie with three titles. I like them all...

[HarryTrotter]

As mentioned in the Bronze age thread,they were all inspired by High Noon.
Well favorite doesnt mean good.Look at my list.

[Tomato]

@cat -I just skimmed through a list of live action films from that tvtropes page, and I think it says a lot that many of my favorite films (pretty much anything not superhero related) are on that list. There were even a few I'd forgotten in there, such as Enchanted. Again though, it's kind of disappointing that we haven't gotten anything of that type related to Superheroes other than Sky High... which, while decent and enjoyable, is also clearly a made-for-disney-channel tv movie which is as much about "high school" drama as anything related to superhero film tropes.

And no, I don't count Deadpool. Pointing out the tropes and being snarky about them doesn't mean anything when, if you striped away all the humor, the narrative is as cookie cutter "this is a superhero origin story movie" as you can get. Don't get me wrong, I ENJOY deadpool, but I don't consider it a parody of the genre the same way I do Galaxy Quest or Enchanted... partly because it is still a pre-existing Marvel character.

[BentonGrey]

Wow, what a difficult question.  I love movies, and my favorite probably changes from day to day.  Yet, if I was forced to pick one as a personal favorite, not based on objective quality alone, I'd pick Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  This was the movie that captured my imagination as a kid and introduced me to worlds of wonder that I didn't know could exist.  It completely realized a world not our own, and its story is purely archetypal and beautiful.  It's still an incredible film, and it's definitely the best of the three Star Wars movies.  As with many of y'all, I could name a different film for pretty much every genre, but even that classification would make it difficult for me to pick favorites. 

Some of my other favorites include many of the films listed here, especially by Daglob.  Lady Grey and I are huge classic movie fans.  My Man Godfrey and It Happened One Night are two of our most beloved films.  I also love the classic swashbucklers, like The Three Musketeers ('48) The Prisoner of Zenda, The Mark of Zorro, and of course, the classic Robin Hood.  The Big Sleep is my favorite film noir flick, and Phillip Marlowe is a favorite character of mine.  Like Daglob, I can watch most anything with Bogart, but I extend that that to the always entertaining Errol Flynn as well. 

I have a deep and abiding love for the old 80s animated Transformers film that has more to do with nostalgia and its impact on me as a kid than anything else, and in spite of its incredible campiness, my heart still thrills whenever I hear "Flash, ah-ahh!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyIIYerdlUA

In more modern movies, I love everything from Catch Me If You Can to Road to Perdition.  I could go on for days. 

'Mato, I see what you mean about Galaxy Quest.  It is very probably an even more affectionate parody than the others you mentioned, as they still managed to tell a complete and charming story while having their laughs.  Cat, that's delightful.  It makes me smile to know that.

Spade, I love Boondock Saints. 

Ohh, and DG, Gorgo, really? 

[daglob]

Like I said in another forum, you hadda be there.

[HarryTrotter]

As far as Kaiju films go,its a tough choice between Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla and Godzilla vs Destroyah.Probably,with Final Wars coming in second.
Speaking of Boondock saint,for years I have been saying that Marvel should tap Troy Duffy for a Punisher adaptation.But that was always just I pipe dream...

[Silver Shocker]

As I've said a few times before on here, Ghostbusters is my favorite film of all time. It (along with its sequel; I am one of those weirdos who genuinely likes Ghostbusters II) that that one movie I can have on in the background anytime while doing something else, without missing a beat.

I have a deep and abiding love for the old 80s animated Transformers film that has more to do with nostalgia and its impact on me as a kid than anything else

Fun fact, I didn't really get into the Transformers animated film into well into my high school years (I vaguely recall seeing it when I was very young), so it was pretty much my gateway drug for G1 nostalgia. According to the Transformers Wiki, this is true for a lot of people, due to it being a movie meaning it was widely distributed for people to see well after the tv show had gone off the air. It's structurally wonky due to being a blatantly cynical feature length commercial for an upcoming new wave of Transformers toys, but as the big saving grace, it's production values are vastly superior to the cheap and junky tv series, which, I'm sorry to say, from where I'm standing, has aged really badly, along with other 80's action cartoons such as G.I. Joe and Superfriends

Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Matrix would definitely be up there on my list of all time favorites, along with The Dark Knight, which I still love.

On a related note, I'd recommend the Youtube series "Really that Good" by Moviebob, which covered (among other things) Ghostbusters and Die Hard, The Matrix (The Transformers animated movie is actually going to be next). If you've seen the Mr. Plinket Reviews by Red Letter Media, it's pretty much the mirror universe version of that. I especially like the observation of how Ghostbusters is mostly witty banter and shop talk rather than physical humor and non-stop action spectacle (which is a big part of WHY Ghostbusters is my favorite movie) and that Die Hard benefits from giving the audience an omniscient perspective, thereby turning what would have been a nail-biting thriller into a awesome power fantasy.

[SickAlice]

@Shogunn2517: " Can we keep this... between us? I'd hate to lose my teaching job. "

[docdelorean88]

Back To The Future
(Shocking I know)

[BWPS]

Kubo and the Two Strings.

[BentonGrey]

Back To The Future
(Shocking I know)

BWPS, such an amazing film!

[kkhohoho]

Wait. There are people in this thread other than me that saw Kubo? GASP! Two of them in fact! This must be a sign of the endtimes, isn't it?

(And yes, Kubo is amazing. Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to go see it ASAP; it's just that good.)

[President Raygun]

I'll  watch the  Godfather whenever it's on, because I  truly believe it's the best film ever, but it's not my favorite movie. On any given day it could be either Blade Runner (No movie has ever grabbed  me visually as much this, even more when I started to read cyberpunk novels and saw the similarities), Repo Man (it's the closest thing to a cross between punk and pulp,plus a great soundtrack) , or Re - Animator(my first exposure to Lovecraft and the movie that hooked me on horror), with a nod to Buckaroo Banzai as well (John Bigbooté was my first online handle back in the AOL days)

[Shogunn2517]

@Shogunn2517: " Can we keep this... between us? I'd hate to lose my teaching job. "