Back in January, I made a New Year’s Resolution. Not to go to the gym or floss more regularly or anything even remotely self-improving. No. My resolution was that this year I would watch 100 movies I’ve never seen before.
We’re now just past the halfway mark, and I’m on the hunt for more movie recommendations. If I’m going to watch 100 movies in a year, I need to get a wriggle on!
I’ve made a pretty good start but I’ve fallen a little behind since April – partly because I’ve been sidelined by some TV box sets (True Blood – OMG it’s amazing) and partly because work has been so chaotic.
I’m also a bit short on inspiration, frankly. Which is where you come in, lovely readers. What movies should I definitely see? What classics or little-known gems would you share with the world?
I’m open to most things. For context, my top three movies of all time would probably be Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Jules et Jim and Ferris Bueller. But I can’t deal with horror movies. At All.
For reference, here’s my year’s movie viewing so far:
Movies I loved this year
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
Slumdog Millionaire
Coraline
Persepolis
Spellbound
Lords of Dogtown
Man on Wire
Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Zoolander
Star Trek
The Beat that My Heart Skipped
Che Part I and II
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Let The Right One In
I’ve Loved You So Long (seriously, I cried for about two hours)
Napoleon Dynamite
Duck Soup
Run Lola Run
The Hangover
Thirteen
Movies that are good but a bit depressing
Changeling
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Nil by Mouth
Rachel Getting Married
Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
Movies that were “not everything I hoped they might be”
Taxi Driver
Complete History of My Sexual Failures
Inconvenient Truth
No Way Home
Moonstruck
March of the Penguins
Il Divo
Monsoon Wedding
Run Fat Boy Run
Wall E
Guilty Pleasure movies
Twilight
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
17 Again
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
The Boat That Rocked
Son of Rambow
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
He’s Just Not That Into You
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The “There’s two hours of my life I’m never getting back” list:
Mamma Mia
Knowing (did the scriptwriter have an aneurism halfway through??)
Monsters versus Aliens (I blame Flea)
Night at the Museum
Bride Wars
So those are my movies of the year so far – my goal is to watch 100 movies this year – what have I missed? Seeing my tastes, what would you recommend?
I’ve been thinking about doing a post like this.
My recommendations are:
The Sure Thing – best 80’s teen comedy ever
some Kind of wonderful – best 80’s teen romance ever
Gregory’s Girl – best 80’s scottish teen comedy romance ever
Muppet Movie – best muppet movie ever
and Muppets from space – second best muppet movie ever.
I am sat in front of my husband’s wall of dvd’s so here we go, some suggestions for you:
Spirited Away (or in fact anything by Studio Ghibli)
Wanted (bit gory in places but super-cool thriller)
Stardust
The Science of Sleep (if you don’t mind something a bit avant garde)
Sunshine
Garden State (subtle and steady but beautiful)
The Prestige
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Butterfly Effect
Lars and the Real Girl
There you go – should keep you going! x
Hiya
you have to see (if you haven’t already)
Shaun of the Dead
Hot Fuzz
Crash
Goodfellas
Point Break
Benjamin Button
Forrest Gump
Matrix
Saving Private Ryan
Toy Story
Finding Nemo
Four Weddings & A Funeral
Bridget Jones’ Diary
Amelie
These are some of my all time favourites, but have you also tried those books: A 1000 movies you should watch before you die? They ate great for some inspiration!
@Dan – we may have similar taste as I think I’ve seen all those!
@Porridgebrain – Spirited Away is good isn’t it? I’ve added Garden State to my Lovefilm list as I do quite fancy that – thanks!
@Brit in Bosnia – I can’t be friends with someone who doesn’t like Dirty Dancing. True Fact.
@Flugl – I do have that book but it makes me feel too inadequate so it’s now on the bookcase in the spare bedroom!
Amelie
Big Fish – a fabulous movie about a father and his son by Tim Burton.
Harold and Maude – one of the best soundtracks and referenced in Something About Mary as one if the greatest love films of all time
O brother where art thou
Spy Game (Pitt and Redford-need I say more)
Life is beautiful
Shine
The Dish
Leon – one of the best films of all time. A very young Natalie Portman
V for Vendetta
Singing in the rain – surprisingly funny. Good comedy.
I could keep going but these are the first few I could think of.
These are favourites in our house and are by no means intellectual but you could watch with Flea (mostly):
Cheaper By The Dozen
Wizard of Oz
101 Dalmations (original cartoon version)
The Italian Job
Sliding Doors
Finding Nemo.
Actually that list is probably rubbish!
Definitely the original with Michael Caine.
Not rubbish at all – Cheaper by the Dozen is one of my guilty pleasures!
Flea’s mostly scared of Disney movies except Toy Story, for some reason. But I’m definitely up for Italian Job – which version is best?
I like that you have so many that you enjoyed. A very positive list.
I’d better not give you any recommendations. I have notoriously bad taste in films.
Mwa – now I’m intrigued. How bad?
My ex used to say “Sally doesn’t get films” because I almost died of boredom watching Rashomon (an examination of ‘truth’ and rape set in Medieval Japan), which he thought was AMAZING. So it’s all subjective, really.
I’ll second Pan’s Labyrinth and also V for Vendetta, but definitely Pan’s Labyrinth.