KraneXL

What famous film that you always here people refer to or talk about that you haven't yet seen?

As someone who actually studied film in school I'm ashamed to say I haven't yet seen "Citizen Kane." Maybe I should make that a 2019 resolution?

Anyway, I finally did designate one weekend and watch that other famous film "Gone With the Wind." Speaking of Christmas, I've never seen "Its A Wonderful Life" either.

caloso

I have never seen Gone With The Wind. It always struck me as too long and too melodramatic. I guess I should finally watch it.

tyrion

That's what I was going to say!

colorider

I've never seen ET and don't really plan to.

canklecat

The Battleship Potemkin
Birth of a Nation
The Fountainhead
Avatar

If I've seen any Star Wars or Star Trek movie made in the past 10 years I must have forgotten them already.

nomadmax 

I've been meaning to see Star Wars, but I've been busy

Aubergine 

I-Like-To-Bike

I finally got to see the 1925 documentary Grass, A Nation's Battle for Life, filmed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack (the men who made the movie King Kong). Ever since I read in the book, Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong it had been on wish list of films to see. Just this month I discovered that it was being streamed on Fandoor. The film was well worth the wait and the price of a year's subscription (which was half price at $25 for subscribers to the late, great Film Struck.)




More on Grass at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_(1925_film)

https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/g...attle-for-life

I-Like-To-Bike

Your loss.

I-Like-To-Bike

You might find out that it is not too long and too melodramatic. That is the advantage of actually watching movies to find out about their content and quality, rather than however you normally arrive at your conclusions about movies you haven't seen.

I-Like-To-Bike

Seen 'em all. Recommend that you put the 1915 version of Birth of a Nation at the top of the list.

genec

Finally saw Its a Wonderful Life in it's entirety a year ago... damn long film with a lot more "grief" in it than I remembered. Really depressing until it all gets wrapped up in the end. I had always seen bits and pieces of it, but never the entire thing from start to finish.

Saw The Battleship Potemkin in college (and got credit for that too... )

Here's a bit of an oddity... "Knife in the Water" Roman Polanski 1962

jadocs

I've never seen Jaws......just kidding, I've watched it hundreds of times.

KraneXL

Didn't see it until 20 years later. Actually, saw it after films 2 and 3. Go figure. Same. I go house visiting during the holidays and I glance bits of it on the tele. Maybe I can sit down before this Christmas?Required viewing for film majors or as an elective under Cinema Appreciation.

jon c. 

I haven't quite had the chance to catch that one either.

dynodonn

Dr Strangelove........in it's entirety, just bits and pieces over the years.

I watched Fail Safe first, and I just wasn't interested in watching Strangelove.

cb400bill

I've never seen any of the Godfather movies. Or GWTW. Or Citizen Kane. Or Spinal Tap.

DrIsotope

In the first hundred of the iMDb Top 250, just a few: Cinema Paradiso (1988,) Witness for the Prosecution, and Paths of Glory (both 1957.) There are some India/Bollywood jams on there as well, but I omit them from the score as they've appeared in the top 250 virtually overnight. I probably shouldn't, as I've seen everything from Hayao Miyazaki and Akira Kurosawa, but I'mma do what I'mma do.

iMDb Top 250 Films (Rating Descending)

Y'all who haven't seen Titanic aren't missing much. Except maybe seeing it now for the first time, you might say "My God, Dicaprio is so young!" The boat sinks. Billy Zane is there for awhile. I've rated that film a C- for 20 years. No change in rating today.

I-Like-To-Bike

Interesting. I'd rate the IMDb list, based on its IMDb user ratings, at C- as a list of top movies to recommend.

A lot of trendy/allegedly hip movies such as Fight Club, Matrix and what appears to be the entire Christopher Nolan collection that are high on this list wouldn't make my top 1000 movies list.

A movie that I would recommend, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, features an even younger Leo in addition to a young Johnny Depp playing a normal person, rather than some sort of cartoon character. With a bonus appearance of Mary Steenburgen.

DrIsotope

Not liking Fight Club or The Matrix is fine-- taste is 100% subjective-- but to imply that they are somehow bad movies simply because they're not your thing is just snobbery.

Those reviews aren't by a company or a computer, they're by people. Between 1.5 and 2 million iMDb users disagree with you just about Fight Club and The Matrix. Popularity isn't a guaranteed indicator that something is bad. That said, Fight Club is a bit overrated. Like the cult-like following for The Boondock Saints.

Critics are far less reliable-- 2001: A Space Odyssey is 29th and Blade Runner #34 on Rotten Tomatoes' "Best Science Fiction Movies of All Time" list. That's just bonkers. Avatar at #66 ? Really? I guess critics really like Dances with Wolves + blue aliens. Visually stunning, but a story that doesn't hold up through more than one viewing.

I'm a person that doesn't believe that the greatest movies of all time were made back in the 40s and 50s. Fantastic movies are being made all the time. Whether you love it or hate it, The Matrix was almost iconoclastic in how sci-fi movies are made. There hadn't been anything like that before. Also weird to me how Nolan gets hated on for pretentiousness almost as much as Bay gets hated on for blowing stuff up and not knowing how women are supposed to act. Sometimes movies are just about entertainment. Nothing wrong with that at all.

genec

The difference between movies made in the 40s-50s verses today is that the actors were stronger, the dialog better and the story was quite often original. Today, while we do have a few strong actors... all too often special effects are called upon for the "drama;" the dialog tends to be too contemporary, and uses vulgar terms; and the story was probably original 50+ years ago... especially in this era of "sequels."

Let's face it, the current run of Marvel superhero movies were comic books not too many decades ago... not exactly the best source of compelling story and great dialog.

And remakes of old movies... not so original.

But yeah, a good one comes along every now and then... and sure, the viewers' expectations are higher today... so there is that.

Oh and as far as critics and SciFi... uh, no, far too many critics just don't know what to do with SciFi... perhaps due to a lack of understanding of the "sci" part. (not to mention the schlock "monster movies" that often were presented as "SciFi."

I-Like-To-Bike

Not making my personal list of top 1000 movies to recommend does not imply that they are bad movies it just means I wouldn't recommend it over 1000 other movies that I think are better or more entertaining, or more interesting or all three.

The IMDb user list of top 250 is heavily weighted to more recent pictures, more than likely because the IMDb users have not seen many movies that are not relatively recently in the theaters or easily available on TV or especially streaming sites. Or as Genec has suggested they prefer special effects, comic book plots and vulgarity and car crashes as a substitute for dialog.

100 of the movies on the 250 list are from the last 20 years, 19 were listed from the 30's and 40's. The paucity on the list of Westerns, military, comedy and musicals, or movies directed by John Huston and John Ford among other great directors, or movies starring Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Hepburn (Katherine or Audrey) reflects more on movie preferences of the IMDb voters rather than the quality of the movies they seem to prefer.

Certainly if was recommending movies to anyone uncomfortable with B&W or dialog/plot driven movies, let alone subtitles, I would recommend movies from the past 20 years.

I-Like-To-Bike

I agreed with the rest of your post but have to disagree about high expectations of current viewers . For example witness the popularity of the Fast and Furious series and umpteen movies with exact same plot - victim of some violent act(s) seeks vengeance and wreaks even more violence on the perpetrators.

genec

Very valid points... arrrg, "pulp films..." no redeeming quality.

My statement regarding "quality" was more geared at optical quality and effects. .. sorry I wasn't more clear on that. Your point is well taken... I can't even imagine the "pitch" that must have been made for some of the crap out there.

There was a time when "horror" required no blood, "drama" required no death, and "death" required no actual scene.

The hyper realism of today’s movies doesn't make them better... but THAT IS what audiances expect.

DrIsotope

Hey, I love The Matrix. It has an almost obscene level of rewatchability to it. But easily in my top 10 favorite films of all time sit Shichinin no samurai and Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. I consider both of them to be almost majestically beautiful, and fantastic examples of character and storytelling. I have no problem enjoying movies where I gotta read words as well as those where lots of stuff explodes. Sometimes, both!

I also can't be the only one that actively seeks out truly terrible movies, right? I do love a good stinker. I think I'm on some eternal quest to unseat whatever movie it is that I consider the "worst thing ever." For many years, it was the unconscionably awful Alone in the Dark (2005.) It's really, really bad. That was finally unseated by Apartment 1303 (2012) the worst movie... ever. My wife tapped out while watching it less than 30 minutes in. I was committed. It's time I'll never get back. But I survived it, and that's worth something. These are truly films that manage to never break that barrier: they never get to the point where they're so bad they're good again. They're just terrible to the core. That said, I highly recommend both. It's always good to re-establish the baseline.