Tele's 100 Favorite Movies aka "Comfort Food" (complete)

[Plain Old Tele]

19. The Terminator (1984)

 

What needs to be said? On a production level, it's impressive what Cameron is able to achieve on a $6.5m budget. It's even more impressive that he was able to craft such a story together, given his lack of writing or above-the-line experience prior to doing it. Clearly, he was destined for special things, and he followed through on that promise in spades. It's really the little things that make this movie work so well: Sarah is such a great, typical young woman... not sure of her aspirations, shy, quiet, kinda trodden upon... she is such a wonderful stand-in for the audience. And -- casting against 80s expectations -- casting Michael Biehn as the hero instead of some larger, bulkier, more obviously "heroic" dude also is pitch-perfect. The two of them are great underdogs against the sheer menace of Arnold's Terminator. Movies are only as good as their endings, and this one is iconic, managing to tie all the last little time-travel threads together in a few brief images with a dark hint of the menacing future.

 

[Empire]

5) Already got it with Interstellar.

Interstellar wasn't even the best effects of last year.

[Plain Old Tele]

18. The Black Stallion (1979)

 

The book is a boys' adventure classic... and it turns out that the movie is too. This was Carroll Ballard's first film as a director, and it showcases what came to be his aesthetic: elegant, beautiful movies with a strong focus on nature and natural elements. Like Malick, Ballard's movies feel different -- the thrust and focus of a scene isn't necessarily done the typical or expected way, and time is given for moments of quiet, of stillness, of beauty. The story unfolds as an unlikely combination of CAST AWAY and SEABISCUIT: in the 1940s, a ship sinks in a terrible storm, and the only survivors are a young boy and a wild, aggressive Arabian stallion. Stranded on a desert island, the two form an unlikely bond... first as a matter of survival, and then as a matter of trust and ultimately love. Of note here is the amazing performance Ballard is able to get from young Kelly Reno -- he feels utterly real as a young boy, with none of the pretense many child actors have. Magic on the screen.

 

[Fancyarcher]

Robocop is an excellent action picture and full of great satire. One of my favorites.

[Avatree]

I haven't seen Terminator only T2

[Kalo]

 

    The visuals in the OT are horrible to look at, they give me a migraine. Also, just how I said countless times, I want perfect CGI when it comes to big spectacle movies (SF mainly, but also disaster movies). HP is not a spectacle movies by any means, especially the first one. The story was enough to hook me up. One of the best ever put on screen. 

you do realize you just completely contradicted yourself right?  

 

Have you seen how the old movies look? It's bloody awful, mate. And it's a space opera. If it doesn't have good effects then it is by definition a bad movie. Plus, the old cast is also pretty meh next to the new one.

 

I'm also beginning to wonder if you have even seen star wars. A New Hope's visuals were grounding breaking at the time, and Empire's visuals have hold so well that some of them still are almost believable today. and yes they may be a bit dated, but as you said the story was good enough on it's own, so in the end the visuals didn't matter.. also Harry Potter is very much a  spectacle movie. it's about magic for crying out loud and is full of visuals. the last two I might add were pretty incredible. it just happens to be a good story on top of that. 

Edited March 11, 2015 by Kalo

[Fancyarcher]

I haven't seen Terminator only T2

 

Both movies are great, but for entirely different reasons.

[Avatree]

you do realize you just completely contradicted yourself right?  

 

I'm also beginning to wonder if you have even seen star wars. maybe not A New Hope. but Empire's visuals were so groundbreaking that some of them still are almost believable today. and yes they may be a bit dated, but as you said the story was good enough on it's own, so in the end the visuals didn't matter.. also Harry Potter is very much a  spectacle movie. it's about magic for crying out loud and is full of visuals. the last two I might add were pretty incredible. it just happens to be a good story on top of that. 

Star Wars' effects were much more "groundbreaking" than Empire's :/

[Ozymandias]

I bet James can look at a really pretty screensaver for 2 hours and be utterly captivated.

[Kalo]

Star Wars' effects were much more "groundbreaking" than Empire's :/

at the time, they don't hold up as well as Empires though. (edited ^ )

Edited March 11, 2015 by Kalo

[The Futurist]

There s a storm coming in.

[Fancyarcher]

Make a movie with a lot of amazing visuals that'll be outdated in five years, and no real story or plot but with some cool action scenes, and James will give it an easy 10.

Edited March 11, 2015 by Fancyarcher

[James]

you do realize you just completely contradicted yourself right?  

 

I'm also beginning to wonder if you have even seen star wars. A New Hope's visuals were grounding breaking at the time, and Empire's visuals have hold so well that some of them still are almost believable today. and yes they may be a bit dated, but as you said the story was good enough on it's own, so in the end the visuals didn't matter.. also Harry Potter is very much a  spectacle movie. it's about magic for crying out loud and is full of visuals. the last two I might add were pretty incredible. it just happens to be a good story on top of that. 

How did I contradict myself? I care about the story only much only when it's not an action spectacle.

 

And unfortunately for me I actualy wasted hours of my life watching that trilogy. The effects may have been groundbreaking back then, but from today's POV they are incredibly bad. I mean, you have JA, then you have SW. The difference is so big it is laughable. 

 

I bet James can look at a really pretty screensaver for 2 hours and be utterly captivated.

 

 

This is my current screensaver (it is titles "Our Understanding of Heaven"):

 

 

And yeah, the first time I saw it I actually stared at it for about 30 min because it's the most amazing, stunning, beautiful thing I've ever seen. 

 

The same goes when I go into an art museum. It takes me almost an entire day to visit.

Edited March 11, 2015 by James

[chasmmi]

Top 25 so far has had 4 Amazing films, 1 very good film and 3 I haven't seen yet.

 

I'm beginning to think that Tele may actually be under 50 after all with this list.

 

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

17. Ghostbusters (1984)

 

The 80s was a great time for genre adventure stories with a big dose of comedy, and GHOSTBUSTERS is second to none for sheer fun. Three down-on-their-luck paranormal investigators lose their academic funding and decide to form the world's first ghost-extermination service. Things get complicated when it seems an ancient curse is about to be fulfilled, leading to the end of the world if they can't stop it. The script is note-perfect for each of its main stars: Murray is the girl-chasing sarcastic guy, Ackroyd is the stat-nerd guy who pushes the whole concept and seems to have memorized the entire paranormal history of the world, and Ramis is the quiet nerd who's the scientist brains behind their operation. It doesn't get better than this.

 

[Plain Old Tele]

16. Back to the Future (1985)

 

Like GHOSTBUSTERS, this is an amazingly fun movie combing thrills and comedy, but it's more plot-driven than #17 on my list. The intricate (and very clever) story has Marty McFly accidentally traveling back in time to when his parents were teenagers... the only problem being, his mother falls for him instead of his father, so unless he can get them to fall in love, he'll cease to exist (from the time paradox). Made with a deep love for the 1950s (understandable, since that's when the filmmakers were growing up themselves), this is a pop culture stroke of genius. The final set-piece, involving some extremely key timing between a lightning strike, a power cable, and a malfunctioning car, is a masterwork of crosscutting between escalating action.

 

[Empire]

Ghostbusters and Back to the Future are both great! Especially BttF which is my #3 all-time favorite film.

[DeeCee]

Listen, and understand. That Telemachos is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. 

 

It had to be said.

[The Futurist]

Harold Ramis wasn t in the In Memorium bit at this year s Oscars.

Revolting.

The dude saved New York from a giant marshmallow godamnit !!!

Edited March 11, 2015 by A Grey Future

[Plain Old Tele]

15. Blade Runner (1982)

 

Like THE THING, this was another downbeat, bleak, dark movie with ambiguous undertones that bombed at the box-office in 1982. And like THE THING, it was rediscovered (and praised) on home video. Based (incredibly loosely) on Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", the movie posits a futuristic Earth where most of the well-to-do have moved "off-world" to nicer and better colonies, leaving behind dirty, over-polluted and over-crowded mega-cities. Most of the off-world labor is done by synthetically-created human slaves ("replicants") with a built-in lifespan and increased strength and vitality... the only danger is the rare occasion when they escape and pose a threat to regular humans. Guarding against that danger, Earth has "blade runners", essentially mercenary killers hired to hunt down and exterminate any escaped replicants. Against the backdrop of one blade runner (Harrison Ford) being brought out of retirement to track down a squad of especially lethal replicants, the movie explores the concepts of memory, loss, what it means to be human, and what it means to live. Enigmatic, languid, and gorgeous beyond belief, the movie's visuals are so iconic that they basically established what the future has looked like in movies for the last thirty years.