top ten films off the top of your head

[filedactivity]

films that have changed me. hmm.

Eraserhead
Pi
The Matrix (funny right?)
Waking Life (probably number one)
The Bourne series, simply because it made me interested in the books.
A Scanner Darkly

I have many other favorite films, but none have really changed me.

[JackRiddler]

Urga.

[Stephen Morgan]

Morgan: Vanishing Point & Trek II, irresistibly.

So not Die Hard, then?

I disliked the whole series because of the unhappy endings. Especially the one where Jeremy Irons is denied in his totally brilliant plan to seize all the gold at the New York Federal Reserve.

One of the problems with the Bourne series, not enough charisma in the villains.

[JackRiddler]

Morgan: Vanishing Point & Trek II, irresistibly.

So not Die Hard, then?

I disliked the whole series because of the unhappy endings. Especially the one where Jeremy Irons is denied in his totally brilliant plan to seize all the gold at the New York Federal Reserve.

One of the problems with the Bourne series, not enough charisma in the villains.

Heh. I was kidding about the over-the-top Irons and the total-overkill plans the villains cooked up in those movies. Sort of like: My two dozen confederates and I will announce and then carry out a high tech multi stage plan to destroy a whole city (or continent) in the name of a leftist ideology I don't actually believe in, so that no one sees me stealing this valuable golden pin!

As for the Bournes, while I appreciate anything that rightly has the CIA as the Big Bad, the Big Bad is only there as a plot requirement. Those movies are all about a redeemed Dragon saving Damsels (or the emotional consequences of failing to save them) and killing other Dragons. They're a pretty charismatic stable of Damsels and Dragons, if you ask me.









And even more so, it's about ultra-violence in dance form. Sort of like Die Hard meets Wire Fu.



^^My favorite Bourne fights involved a rolled-up magazine and a book as lethal weapons.

Clive Owen reminds me to give a plug for The International. That was too much fun.

[Cordelia]

^^
"They're a pretty charismatic stable of Damsels and Dragons, if you ask me."

I agree with you, especially about she who is your top photo, Franka Potente. I think her absence was one reason I didn't care for the third installment (well, one reason anyway).

Have to disagree about 'The International'; a film I forgot I watched as soon (or before) as the ending credits rolled.

I'll plug for Clive Owens in 'Inside Man' (also full of charismatic performers).

[JackRiddler]

Have to disagree about 'The International'; a film I forgot I watched as soon (or before) as the ending credits rolled.

Were you ever a boy at the Guggenheim thinking about what a great setting it would make for a gigantic 10-on-2 shootout? I can't say I was disappointed by the execution of it.

And then there was this:

Calvini: "No, this is not about making profit from weapon sales. It's about control."
Eleanor: "Control the flow of weapons, control the conflict?"
Calvini: "No. No No. The IBBC is a bank. Their objective isn't to control the conflict, it's to control the debt that the conflict produces. You see, the real value of a conflict - the true value - is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt, you control everything. You find this upsetting, yes? But this is the very essence of the banking industry, to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals, slaves to debt."

Also, that the ex-Stasi man started out as an idealist decades ago and only reached his full moral degeneration when he went to work for a bank.

I understand why you forgot it by the time it was over. It was action entertainment for armchair commies, light fare. But like I said, fun! Easy to eat again.

I'll plug for Clive Owens in 'Inside Man' (also full of charismatic performers).

And I'll agree!

[barracuda]

I don't know how off the top of my head this is, since I've been ignoring the question entirely til now, but...

[Cordelia]

Have to disagree about 'The International'; a film I forgot I watched as soon (or before) as the ending credits rolled.

Were you ever a boy at the Guggenheim thinking about what a great setting it would make for a gigantic 10-on-2 shootout? I can't say I was disappointed by the execution of it.

Oops! I got 'The International' mixed up with 'Duplicity'. I forgot them both as soon as I saw them (all I remember of Duplicity is Julia Robert's great quip about her thong underwear) but I was particularly disappointed in The International because I'd looked forward to the subject and Clive, along with Armin Mueller-Stahl (I'm not a fan of Naomi Watts, except in 'The Painted Veil' and 'Eastern Promises').

But you're right, I never fantasized a shoot-out in the Guggenheim, and, though I'm not entertained by many action films and start to nod off with car chases and shoot-ups, I'll never watch 'The Road Warrior' too many times (and will probably need to replace my worn out VHS copy soon).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R8H59FM ... re=related

[Stephen Morgan]

Morgan: Vanishing Point & Trek II, irresistibly.

So not Die Hard, then?

I disliked the whole series because of the unhappy endings. Especially the one where Jeremy Irons is denied in his totally brilliant plan to seize all the gold at the New York Federal Reserve.

One of the problems with the Bourne series, not enough charisma in the villains.

Heh. I was kidding about the over-the-top Irons and the total-overkill plans the villains cooked up in those movies. Sort of like: My two dozen confederates and I will announce and then carry out a high tech multi stage plan to destroy a whole city (or continent) in the name of a leftist ideology I don't actually believe in, so that no one sees me stealing this valuable golden pin!

As for the Bournes, while I appreciate anything that rightly has the CIA as the Big Bad, the Big Bad is only there as a plot requirement. Those movies are all about a redeemed Dragon saving Damsels (or the emotional consequences of failing to save them) and killing other Dragons. They're a pretty charismatic stable of Damsels and Dragons, if you ask me.

I like the over the top pantomime stuff. But then again, I like Top Gear too.

Don't like the Bourne movies, though.

[DeltaDawn]

LBO, I'm trading my African Queen to put in "The Green Mile" which someone (sorry, too toasted to check who) mentioned in the Favorite Film Clips thread.....Is that allowed? lol

[Nordic]

"films that have changed me". HA! Would have to go back to childhood for that.

"Bambi". Top of the list. The whole "your mom is dead thing"
"Wizard of Oz". Gave me nightmares about tornadoes my whole life, until I actually saw one in real life.
"Sound of Music" Greatly contributed to my "whore/madonna" complex, falling in love with the chase Julie Andrews, the "mother figure you want to marry".
"Tora Tora Tora" made me think war might actually be pretty cool, cuz stuff blows up so good.
Any number of John Wayne movies contributed mightily to my notion of the redneck American hero.

Gotta run

[JackRiddler]

Somehow ran into this thread and kicking because it makes me laugh, in a good way.

[gnosticheresy_2]

ooo! ooo! can I play?

Dawn of the Dead - the original. I was absolutely obsessed with this for ages

Monty Python and the Holy Grail - top tip: if you watch Holy Grail then watch Boorman's Excalibur immediately afterwards, Excalibur becomes a very funny comedy

Aliens - yes I know Alien is the better film

They Live/ The Thing - had to put one Carpenter film here but couldn't decide. also: Big Trouble in Little China and Assault on Precinct 13.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly - a dream of the West

The Matrix - ha!

Children of Men - Clive Owen is great, he's especially great in this.

Trainspotting - I saw this on the weekend it came out "drunk off my ass" (I think that's the term) at the late showing in an Edinburgh cinema. Still remembered it all the next day though. Which leads me nicely to....

Drunken Master - "what is this drink master, it's strong!"
"White Lightning!" (uk joke )

[justdrew]

Alphaville

2001: a space odyssey

man facing southeast (aka Hombre mirando al sudeste)

Mulholland Drive

Repoman

Grave of the fireflies (animated version)

Until the End of the world (super extended version)

Stop Making Sense (by Talking Heads)

Reds

Mission Stardust

the lemon grove kids meet the monsters

[psynapz]

Got to attempt this. The lovely thing about the thread title is that it sets you up nicely to come back in another frame of mind with another string of 10 movies you thought of in that state instead of this one, so the pressure is off to "get it right" the first time. As for this one, for me, off the top of my head, right now, it's:

Terminator II - I don't think I ever saw 1 or 3, but 2 reinforced my love of robotics, AI and hacking, and my stark, bone-chilling fear of nuclear war, being that I lived within certain-death distance from major strategic targets at the time. Shit gave me nightmares.

Intruders - 2-part TV miniseries adaptation of the Hopkins work. Shit gave me nightmares. I'm barely over it now.

Pulp Fiction - I have that film memorized. It infected the vernacular of my circle of friends completely. My social personality is undoubtedly forever changed.

Get Shorty - See above.

V for Vendetta - I hadn't read the graphic novel yet, and I was way, way up deep in 9/11 truth discovery, and I wept openly a couple times in the theater, half because I felt like I was the only one in the theater who understood the subtext, surrounded by the merely entertained dupes -- the same demographic who flash-mobbed Penn Ave the night they "got bin Laden". Sadness.

The Matrix - Glad to see this one show up for many of you too. It just... solidified things I understood.

Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas - Never having enjoyed psychedelics myself (like Gilliam) at the time (now not like Gilliam), I felt like I was tripping balls walking out of the theater after that. The walls were fucking dripping, man! A film did that to me. Whoa.

The Third Man - the first black and white film I didn't reject out of hand. Pure awesome. Also: the zither. Am I right?

F for Fake - while we're on the Wells kick here. Yeah, movies can be like that instead. That movie had all the balls of Stephen Colbert, with a fat old famous fuck behind a beard playing prestadigitator.

Trust - It seemed like the kind of movie anybody could have made, even me, except Hal Hartley did and I got to watch it a few times. The mensch. I still, when contextually appropriate, have the thought which sometimes escapes my lips like Martin Donovan, "I feel like smashing things up." and "I feel like tearing somebody's head off."

Shit, I already want to list about 20 more. Out of time for now tho...