Favourite Movies

Dunno about favourites, necessarily. There are films I really enjoy. Others I was very impressed it. Others that I can see many times over. And that's what I'm listing here.

Shortlist:
- Airplane!
- Aladdin (because I watched it a lot as a kid, but I haven't seen it in ages)
- Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
- Christmas Vacation
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
- Ghostbusters
- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Jurassic Park
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Monty Python's Life of Brian
- Ratatouille
- The Dark Knight Trilogy
- The Star Wars Original Trilogy
- The Toy Story Trilogy
- Up
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit?


Now a few that I want to highlight. My top favourites at the moment.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight
I see these two movies as one long film. And watching them back to back works really well. I've only seen The Dark Knight Rises once, and while it is good, I don't think I'll ever consider it to be in the same league as these two films. They are expertly made. The writing is top-notch. The cinematography is beautiful. The casting and acting is great (mostly. The Rachael Dawes character is poorly acted in the first and poorly cast in the second). They spun the franchise and the genre on their ear. Taking the essence of the character's mythos and grounding it in a modern reality (but still, very clearly fantasy). The combination of psychodrama against the backdrop terrorism works exceedingly well. And both films (moreso the second, although it doesn't work as well without having seen the first) are mesmorizing and I could watch them both every day. The Dark Knight in particular because of its plot structure. No beginning, middle, and end there. It just explodes out of the gates from where the first movie left off and continually escalates until it just abruptly lets go at the end.

Casino Royale 007
Similarly to the Batman pictures above, this terrific entry in the Bond series reinvents the franchise. Again, it is a back to basics approach that is true to the original novels by Fleming and free from the nonsensical plots and camp of the more recent movies that preceeded it. But beyond succeeding in that task and being one of the best entries in the genre, the movie is just good and highly entertaining. You also care about this Bond. He's not so much the man women want and men want to be. He is very human here. Also, the movie features one of my all-time favourite film scores. And like the two Batman films above, it's a big budget movie shot like a serious film. Quantum of Solace was okay, but did not feel much like a Bond film. Can't wait for Skyfall though. Heard great things so far.

Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back
I do love the Star Wars films, but really... mostly just these two. The Original Trilogy kicks the ass of the Prequel Trilogy. But Return of the Jedi is... meh. It starts off okay rescuing Han on Tatooine, but then it moves into a retread of A New Hope's plot. And the Ewoks? Seriously? Anyway, Star Wars is great as a sort of outerspace cowboy opera thing. One of the first films to portray a "used future". The visuals still hold up today. Fantastic musical score. Most everything about it came together very well and it is entertaining. Then there's The Empire Strikes Back which is my favourite Star Wars movie and either first or second favourite overall (the other contender is The Dark Knight). It takes the Star Wars formula and turns it into a character drama. It has an even better score. Moments of humour scattered in the dialogue that lightens up the struggles the characters find themselves in. And a great cliffhanger ending.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
This movie is pure genius. A world where 'toons live and interact with humans. They go to work on film sets in Hollywood and shoot cartoon shorts. The biggest star at this imagined point in history is rabbit specializing in slapstick. Eventually Roger is accused of murdering the owner of Toontown (which neighbours Hollywood) and the ACME corporation (note, Looney Tunes prop gags) because he had previously uncovered Mr. Acme playing "patty-cake" (quite literally) with his wife (who is not a rabbit). Rogers turn to a human private investigator for help who hates toons because his brother was murdered by one (a piano was dropped on his head). If you love cartoons, you will love this movie and its false history and rules (the Toontown-Hollywood interplay, that and how 'toons can be killed). A strange mix of features go into this movie besides the live-action/animation dynamic. It is a comedic noire detective flick and it works really damn well. Lots of cartoon cameous too and Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny share screen time!

 

Mine are Treasure Planet and Spirited Away.

 

In no particular order, and not exactly a complete list:

- Resident Evil (2002)
- The Lion King (1994)
- Black Dynamite (2009)

 

I loved The Guard. It's a really obscure Irish buddy cop movie, but it's a joy to watch. I also love Drive with Ryan Gosling. It's just one of those films that you love or hate and I'm a huge fan. Other films I'm fond of are SuperBad, Gran Torino, True Grit, and 21 Jump Street.