OT/MISC What are your TWO FAVORITE MOVIES of all time?

I just finished watching The Green Mile, and if you can see that film without tearing up, you're a better man than I. Which led me to the question, what are your two favorite films of all time? Oddly enough. As racist as some would paint me, my two favorites are:

- The Green Mile

- Amistad


I cannot see these films without getting so emotional that I can't keep a dry eye. If you havent seen them, I highly recommend them.

And now, what are yours?

Tombstone and The Princess Bride Yes, very different types but both great in their own way.

Forrest Gump

Saving Private Ryan

Of course Burt Gummer's two favorites are:
Tremors and Tremors II
.
followed closely by Forest Gump and Sergeant York and the last Star Trek.

Again-no TWO favorites, depends on my mood but I'll start with

Watership Down and Powder.

Burt Gummer said:

Of course Burt Gummer's two favorites are:
Tremors and Tremors II
.
followed closely by Forest Gump and Sergeant York and the last Star Trek.

Click to expand...

Tremors-all of them and even the series tho it was obviously getting silly and losing track by the third one.

All of the Lethal weapon movies and the Die Hard movies, Clockwork orange, They Live, Man from Snowey River, Hear no Evil, See no Evil... I could keep going.

Why limit yourself?

The Godfather I
The Godfather II

Monty

I am not generally into movies. But...

The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The greatest hero of the book and movie is Samwise Ganji (sp?). A truer friend you could never have on this earth.

The Passion Of The Christ

The Yarn Princess

Very few movies have any replay value for me. Thus I would use that as my first criterea. Also it has to be a "big" movie with a large cast and many moving parts to it in order to stand the test of time.

My #1 pick is an easy one.

This darkest of dark comedies succeeds at tackling one of the most foreboding of all topics, the end of mankind as we know it.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.


Pick #2 is a lot harder but I can still watch this over and over,

It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) Official Theatrical Trailer


I would be remiss without posting this as an Honorable Mention,

Blazing Saddles

Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Young Frankenstein.

I like movies that make me laugh.

Only TWO?

Good grief. The 'Green Mile' ranks way up there, as does 'Saving Private Ryan'. For one of the best visually - stunning films, probably "Apocalypto." 'The Passion of the Christ' is way up there, but I'll never watch it again. "Legends of the Fall" is great.

But as for my all-time TWO favorites, I'd have to say "Jaws" is the #1 that really got me fired up when I was young. "Star Wars," (the first one, 1977) was also killer.

But #2 would have to be "Dances With Wolves." "Jurassic Park" blew me away.

But as for others (and the sequels), "The Matrix," "Die Hard," "Rambo," "Predator," and "Alien."

Ruthless People.
The Big Lebowsky (and Oh Brother Where Art Thou a close runner up).

I use movies to keep me from crying.

I like all the movies mentioned but for me it would be:

It's a Wonderful Life- for sheer Frank Capra brilliance.

And

The Matrix- a beautiful parable to show us what is really going on.

The one that moves me to tears from the moment it comes on is Glory.

The Notebook
Gone With The Wind

My list of "good movies" is probably not as long as some. There are plenty of movies I don't mind watching, and depending on my mood that list grows and shrinks. Then there are my "Great" movies, and that list is much shorter. The Lord of The Ring extended version (yes, it's one movie, just broken into three parts, just like the book usually is, and when The Hobbit movies come out, they'll be part of that too). Avatar for the effects; even if the story is crap James Cameron did some amazing technical work, and it brings me hope that one day that level of cinema technology will be available to ordinary schlubs, and someone will make movies of John DeChancie's Starrigger trilogy. The three Indiana Jones movies (no, there were only three; you must be mistaken). Star Wars (even with the horrible dialog and Gungans, I love the universe George created). Dune. Alien and Aliens. Terminator. And a few others. However, the two movies I insist on owning, no matter how many times I have to get newer formats, are Predator and The Road Warrior.

Buckster said:

I am not generally into movies. But...

The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The greatest hero of the book and movie is Samwise Ganji (sp?). A truer friend you could never have on this earth.

Click to expand...

^This^ My grandchildren named my black lab, Sam. He was born in 2003, just before the third movie was released.

I also liked Courageous, Facing the Giants, and Steel Magnolias.

I'm with Ender on this one It's A wonderful Life, is on my list also. But my three favorite are oldie goldies:
I Remember Mama (1948) Irene Dunn
Brigadoon (1954) Gene Kelly
The Quiet Man (1952) John Wayne

Blade Runner

Star Wars

Pulp Fiction

The Avengers ( 2012 )

My first would have to be 1972 Academy Award winner Chinatown

My second I'm still thinking

OK, for my second fav I would pick Eye of the Needle

A rather obscure film with Donald Sutherland & Kate Nelligan(sp?). Donald a WWII Nazi spy in England that finds out the secret that could change the war. in an attempt to get back to Nazi Germany his stolen ship wrecks in a storm, barely alive, on a remote island inhabited by only four(?) people. Kate discovers in a brief fling she is the only thing that stands in his way and the secret that could win or lose WWII and she fights him with all her might at great cost to prevent him from returning to Germany.

I have sooooooo many that I'd consider my favorites .... Sorry , no way I could go with just 2 , but 5, now that is more acceptable.. but I will list them in order so you'd know what my top 2 are .. (and yes I'm counting trilogy boxed sets as one)

So the criteria I will use will be , if I had only these 5 to bug out with as my only entertainment in a SHTF post apocalyptic scenerio ...

1. The Highlander
2. LOTR Trilogy
3. Star Wars (first o.g. trilogy)
4. Ben Hur
5. Planet of the Apes (boxed set o.g. 70's films )


also just wanted to add , pretty much ANY of the 50's and 60's "epics" that had the great actors of the time such as Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson, Brando and etc... such as The Robe, Ten Commandments and etc..

As mentioned earlier, "The Matrix" is also my number one favorite as it is a allegory to and of how the dark side exists within our present day world.

Then there is "The Wizard of Oz" for the incurable child within me.

A close runner up would be the "Star Wars" series.

Buckster said:

I am not generally into movies. But...

The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The greatest hero of the book and movie is Samwise Ganji (sp?). A truer friend you could never have on this earth.

Click to expand...

It's "Samwise Gamgee", and you should really read the book. The relationship between the two hobbits is done far better (and you'd know how to spell all the names )

many good movies mentioned and they are all worth the time...2 not listed yet, The Wild Bunch & the Man Who Would Be king.

Well, we're movie buffs and own hundreds of 'em (at least), so I couldn't possibly list just two. Perhaps half-a-dozen in each genre would be... nah, still impossible.

DH and I like Lonesome Dove and Return to Lonesome Dove; The Godfather (1, 2, & 3); The Thorn Birds, and North and South for miniseries'.

We like Schindler's List;Sophie's Choice;The Holocaust; The Reader; Jacob the Liar; and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas for 'Holocaust' movies.

All Star Trek movies; the Alien movies; Avatar; Stargate; Star Wars; ET; Close Encounters; K-PAX... this is too hard!

We really like Inception; Behind The Red Door; The Interpreter; Breach; The Family Stone; The Upside of Anger; The Notebook; The Time Traveler's Wife; The Vow; Lorenzo's Oil; Bernard and Doris....

All Tom Hanks' movies
All Denzel Washington's movies
All Kevin Costner's movies
All Meryl Streep's movies (except Bridges of Madison County - didn't care for that one).
All of Jeff Bridges' movies
Most of Robin Williams' movies

We like Jesus of Nazareth; The Shoes of the Fisherman; and Saving Grace. We own The Passion of The Christ but don't consider it entertainment; we watch it once a year on Nisan 14 (Passover) and that's as much as I can take; it's brutal.

We like many more, but our two default movies, as in movies we could watch any time are probably The Bucket List and Carnage.
Hey, Dennis! The Green Mile scared the hell out of me. It was certainly well done, but watching someone burn to death while strapped to a chair is nightmare material for me!

Gone With the Wind
Ghost
and I can't leave out The Man From Snowy River

Like movies that bring out EVERY emotion there is....these three do that to me.

Red Baron said:

Very few movies have any replay value for me. Thus I would use that as my first criterea.

Click to expand...

Same here. There are very few movies or tv shows that I can bear to watch more than once. Two of the exceptions are:

Groundhog Day
The Wizard of Oz

I always watch these when they are on. I like to watch bits of musical movies over and over too: Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Singing in the Rain, Flashdance, etc.

1. The Ten Commandments
2.Last Of The Mohicans

The Sound of Music, and Mary Poppins.

{just kidding}

The Pelican Brief
We Were Soldiers Once

My favorite films take me to a place emotionally where I can become a part of that story rather than just a passive observer. The two I listed do just that. For Amistad, it's the terrible fear from being torn from your home, taken to a place you never saw before and where you can't understand them, and placed in prison for no reason at all. You have no advocate, and might as well have been kidnapped by aliens. Their struggle and ultimate vindication at the hand of the Supreme Court, sends chills up my spine. This kind of noble behavior from the courts back when our nation was young. Of course, the soul stirring speech by Anthony Hopkins as well as that by the Chief Justice when the decision was read, is worth listening to over and over gain, as we struggle to take our country back from traitors and tyrants.

For The Green Mile, that film takes me to a place where God's miracles really do exist on Earth, and where true good and compassion overcome all adversity.

Paul Edgecomb: What do you want me to do John? You want me to let you run out of here, see how far you can get?

John Coffey: Why would you do such a foolish thing?

Paul Edgecomb: On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That it was my job? My job?

John Coffey: You tell God the Father it was a kindness you done. I know you hurtin' and worryin', I can feel it on you, but you oughta quit on it now. Because I want it over and done. I do. I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we's coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time. Can you understand?

Paul Edgecomb: Yes, John. I think I can.

.....

Old Paul Edgecomb: I think Mr. Jingles happened by accident. I think when we electrocuted Del, and it all went so badly... well, John can feel that you know... and I think a part of... whatever magic was inside of him just lept through my tiny friend here. As for me, John had to give me a part of himself; a gift the way he saw it, so that I could see for myself what Wild Billy had done. When John did that; when he took my hand, a part of the power that worked through him spilled into me.

Elaine Connelly: He... what? He infected you with life?

Old Paul Edgecomb: That's as good a word as any. He infected us both, didn't he, Mr. Jingles? With life. I'm a hundred and eight years old, Elaine. I was forty-four the year that John Coffey walked the Green Mile. You mustn't blame John. He couldn't help what happened to him... he was just a force of nature. Oh I've lived to see some amazing things Elly. Another century come to pass, but I've... I've had to see my friends and loved ones die off through the years... Hal and Melinda... Brutus Howell... my wife... my boy. And you Elaine... you'll die too, and my curse is knowing that I'll be there to see it. It's my attonement you see; it's my punishment, for letting John Coffey ride the lightning; for killing a miracle of God. You'll be gone like all the others. I'll have to stay. Oh, I'll die eventually, that I'm sure. I have no illusions of immortality, but I will have wished for death... long before death finds me. In truth, I wish for it already.

.....

[last lines]
Old Paul Edgecomb: We each owe a death - there are no exceptions - but, oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long.




Again, anyone who can watch The Green Mile dry-eyed is a stronger person than I....

The Matrix

E.T.

Red Dawn
Witness

Oh geez, there are too many to list as the top two but if I really had to choose just two it would be the Matrix (have all 3 of those) and the Lord of the Rings trilogy with The Patriot with Mel Gibson running a close third.

Then you have all the Tremors movies (yes we have the set of 4 of them and watch them a lot, so much that we know the lines by heart, lol)
Love Armageddon with Bruce Willis just for the fun of it.
Sea Biscuit just because it makes me cry when he wins his first race and when he beats the snot out of War Admiral......lol.
Avatar because it is so rich in sensory stuff.......(still need to buy that one, too expensive to keep renting it)

We have around 150 movies in our library so far. I look for them in the cheap bins at the stores, yard sales and the thrift stores. Sometimes I pay almost full price if it is one I really like to watch tho.
Dh doesn't like to watch stuff more than once except Matrix and the Tremor movies. The rest he loses interest because he has seen them before......he knows all the dialogue on the Tremors movies tho......grins.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir with Gene Tierney

Dances With Wolves

Can't get it down to two, but close:

LOTR trilogy, The Patriot, Gandhi, Dances With Wolves. Those are the ones that, when I run across them I set aside what I'm doing and watch to the end, and have seen all of them too many times to count.


"The Yarn Princess" is an interesting choice; very good, but not in my top tier---this is the first time I've run across anyone who's even heard of it.
If you want a classic great movie, almost unheard of now, check out, "The Mortal Storm" (1940). Frank Morgan, Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullavan. TCM shows it from time to time. Another is "China Girl" with Gene Tierney, but good luck finding it. TCM ran it once and if someone would put it on a DVD I'd die a happy woman.

favorites

Aliens
LOTR trilogy

Where Eagles Dare

High Road To China