An Angel's Baker's Dozen (plus one) Top Movies

[IndustriousAngel]

Since everyone seems to be doing it, who am I to disagree? So here's the list of 14 movies which got 10/10 on imdb from me, and since I wouldn't want to rank those as they're already the crème de la crème, I just sort them by release year. All well-known movies which probably everybody here has seen multiple times so no big explanations, either.

 

Here we go:

 

1932

The Music Box

director: James Parrott, but of course it's Laurel and Hardy who drive the show. Maybe their most iconic short.

[IndustriousAngel]

1970

Aristocats

director: Wolfie Reitherman, who did also some other Disney classics like Jungle Book - I just love the Aristocats most!

[IndustriousAngel]

1973

Sleeper

director, musician and overall star: Woody Allen. Not only Allen's best (imho) but one of the great all-time comedies! Never gets old ...

Edited February 28, 2015 by IndustriousAngel

[IndustriousAngel]

1974

Young Frankenstein (you knew it by my avatar, no?)

dir.: Mel Brooks, but it's a much a triumph for Gene Wilder, and of course Marty Feldman who was in far too few movies

[IndustriousAngel]

1979

Alien

dir.: Ridley Scott. No surprise here either, I guess this one's in everyone's Top10

[IndustriousAngel]

1979

Life of Brian

dir.: Terry Jones, and all the other Pythons. Usually Monty Python's stuff consisted of very short to short sketches, and it's rare that such a type of comedy translates well to feature length, but "Life of Brian" is perfect in every respect - keeping the hilarious gags while telling a real story worth telling. Like everything else in my list, endlessly rewatchable.

[baumer]

Alien is excellent of course.

[IndustriousAngel]

1982

Koyaanisqatsi

dir.: Godfrey Reggio, but the two names most important for the success are Ron Fricke (who continues to do astonishing camera work) and Philip Glass (who has never come close to repeating the sheer impact of this soundtrack, even if he's done some fine work since)

 

btw, this was the first movie I paid for myself (I was 15 at the time and until then my parents had given me movie-money if I wanted to watch something), and did so twice because I was simply blown away.

[IndustriousAngel]

1982

The Thing

dir. John Carpenter.

I guess this one's in many people's Top 10 too, a perfect movie from story to sound and music to actors to effects to set ... strange that it was no success during its theatrical run. btw, a good example that a remake can be worth being made (to all those "ugh another remake"-haters out there).

Edited February 28, 2015 by IndustriousAngel

[IndustriousAngel]

1988

A Fish Called Wanda

dir.: Charles Crichton, but John Clees deserves as much credit (also for the script).

[IndustriousAngel]

1990

Gremlins 2

dir.: Joe Dante.

The original Gremlins is a fine movie, too, but in G2 everything went much more over-the-top, all safety catches off - one of the craziest rides ever.

[IndustriousAngel]

1993

The Wrong Trousers

dir.: Nick Park

A movie can't be much tighter than this short - ultra-condensed storytelling, perfectly paced, relentless gags, a delicious villain and an (under)dog hero.

(also, I'm a big fan of stop-motion as well as train chases, so this one really hit my sweet spot)

[IndustriousAngel]

1999

The Straight Story

dir.: David Lynch

Lynch's most restrained work, soars on the big screen but what really makes it tick are Richard Farnsworth as Alvin and Sissy Spacek as his daughter. Great, great film.

[IndustriousAngel]

2001

Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

dir.: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Sometimes Jeunet loses himself among all his pretty visual ideas but in Amélie, there was real heart at the heart of the story. There are feel-good comedies feeling gooder, but none more interesting.

[IndustriousAngel]

2003

The Lord of the Rings

dir. Peter Jackson. I consider all three parts just one big movie, and the thing is much better than it has any right to be, considering the difficulty and bulk of the source material, the portfolio of the director, the inexperienced crew and so on. Howard Shore's soundtrack is one of the very few which really push the story to a new level. And the most important thing: Despite all the epic story and scenes, we always come back to faces and hands.

[IndustriousAngel]

Already over, really just 14 titles ... and what they have in common (and why they get 10/10) is that I can watch them over and over, that's a quality quite apart from stuff like camerawork, interesting story and so on. Among my 9/10 movies, there are many which, going by technical aspects, or by great acting, or by beautiful soundtrack or whatever, may be better than any of the stuff I put in here - but I don't want to watch them again and again. So, no surprise that there's much lighthearted stuff in here, I'm an optimistic and funny kind of guy and like me some comedy.

 

btw, there are many films I could (and do) watch over and over (or at least say once every two years) but which didn't get 10/10, because there are some flaws like pacing issues, cheesy script, bad editing or something like that, like Star Trek 4 (The Voyage Home) or Empire Strikes Back or The Dark Crystal  or Saving Grace to name a few.

[Kalo]

I've actually only seen 5 of those, love Lord of the Rings and The Wrong Trousers. Aristocats and Alien were pretty darn good too.. I was quite young when I was it, but I remember thinking the Straight Story was one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. 

[IndustriousAngel]

I've actually only seen 5 of those, love Lord of the Rings and The Wrong Trousers. Aristocats and Alien were pretty darn good too.. I was quite young when I was it, but I remember thinking the Straight Story was one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. 

Well, I was 32 when I saw "The Straight Story", already a dad by that time ... it's no actioner for sure and a bit of a foreign body here in my list with its slow pace and themes of illness, death and old age - but I must say, despite all this, there's an uplifting quality to it, too. I'd recommend you give it a try later on when you've got some experience with death or illness in the family.

 

as to the rest, I'd recommend you catch "Sleeper" - it's a movie surprisingly few people seem to know, as well-known as Woody Allen is - and in Sleeper, there was still much of the slapstick comedy which went AWOL in his later works, together with his clever wordplay and biting satire. And "The Thing" should be required viewing, too, if you liked "Alien".

[Kalo]

Well, I was 32 when I saw "The Straight Story", already a dad by that time ... it's no actioner for sure and a bit of a foreign body here in my list with its slow pace and themes of illness, death and old age - but I must say, despite all this, there's an uplifting quality to it, too. I'd recommend you give it a try later on when you've got some experience with death or illness in the family.

 

as to the rest, I'd recommend you catch "Sleeper" - it's a movie surprisingly few people seem to know, as well-known as Woody Allen is - and in Sleeper, there was still much of the slapstick comedy which went AWOL in his later works, together with his clever wordplay and biting satire. And "The Thing" should be required viewing, too, if you liked "Alien".

I was like 9 or 10 when I saw it, and I've had several deaths in my family.

[baumer]

I haven't see a lot of these, but I love your choices for this list.