So people seemed to enjoy the Favourite Books thread, but I thought I wouldn't pigeonhole this one with the "Favourite" part. Talk about old films you've watched recently, films you saw at the cinema, your favourite film, films you hate and perhaps most importantly films no human being should ever be made to watch. Even if your favourite film is one people normally consider stupid, post it up. Argue with people over their film choices - go crazy. For me I've a few in each category:

Favourite Films

The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan. What can I say, this film has great villians, awesome action scenes and themes that run through the whole of it. It's also cinematographic - if someone has found a better metaphor for the shit has hit the fan than a burning firetruck I haven't heard of it. This film got me into the batman franchise; since then I've bought graphic novels like The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum: A Strange House on Strange Earth and Hush - I've also played many of the video games. All in all a great film, Batman Begins is also good but not as good as The Dark Knight. Needless to say I'm waiting with baited breath for The Dark Knight Rises.

Repulsion by Roman Polanski. By far better than films like Rosemary's Baby or The Ninth Gate (though I've not seen The Pianist yet), no film as I've seen of yet has documented a person's descent into madness so well. Sure it's a bit slow in places and the 1960's music can be a bit dodgy, but overall this film is very good and it's dated effects creaped me out even today. Also I defy you to find a more attractive woman than the young Catherine Deneuve, certainly a lot better than the older Catherine Deneuve. This film cemented Roman Polanski as my favourite paedophile of all time.

Session 9 by Brad Anderson. If anything drips atmosphere, it's this film. Another film about a person's descent into madness, though considering the movie was filmed in a genuine mental asylum how could the characters not go a bit crazy? A true shame more people have not heard of this film, I consider it a disturbing classic.

Favourite films that I'm too lazy to talk about in detail are Suspiria by Dario Argento - so stylish it'll make your eyeballs bleed, Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro - I watched this again only tonight and I've come to the conclusion creepy fairytales sound better in spanish, A Clocwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick - another stylish film and even though I prefer the book this will always have a place in my heart. Anything by Quentin Tarintino is also great by me, the only one of his I've yet to see is Jackie Brown though I've heard it's bad so no great loss.

Films I've watched recently

I'll go for just the one seeing as I watch films regularly, Hansel and Gretel by Pil-Sung Yim. A Korean film, it's not unlike Pan's Labyrinth in tone and theme - though at times it becomes a bit dull particularly in a dragging scene towards the end where there's lots of sentimentality and crying. I'd watch it again, but maybe not 3 times.

Actually I'll go for another, Confessions by Tetsuya Nakashima. Give it a watch if you're into world cinenema, it's good but nothing edifying.

Films I Saw at the Cinema

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Tomas Alfredson. An all star cast of actors I like (Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and John Hurt) but I found it boring - it is a film about spies in the Cold War after all. Not a lot happens and it's quite long. In hindsight I'd give it a miss. I'm going to watch Jurassic Park on Wednesday seeing as it's been re-released, for sure it'll be much better.

Films I Hate

Coyote Ugly and The Blind Side. You know why I hate these films - there's no catharsis, things go from better to better and who wants to hear about that? Sure The Blind Side is based on a true story but who gives a shit. I'd rather blow my brains out than commit to a repeat viewing.

Films No Human Being Should be Made to Watch

A Serbian Film by Srdjan Spasojevic. Seriously just don't watch it. I have a stomach for a lot of films and this was just way too much; and I know that might sound enticing to some of you sick freaks but even so just give this one a miss. I related some of the worst scenes to a friend and he watched it! Bottom line the message here is don't ever watch it. The director Srdjan Spasojevic may claim that the film had to be so shocking to serve as a metaphor for the peoples' suffering at the hands of Serbian government; but does any film need to be so shocking as to include paedophilia, necrophilia, rape and incest - as graphically as is legally possible? Also more than a few of those are combined. If the phrase "Newborn Porn" which is used in the film doesn't convince you not to watch it, I don't know what will.

Caligua by Tinto Brass. Some reviews on Amazon described it to me as "the most shocking film you'll ever see" which I inferred to be violent. But no! It's porn, just porn. And I like the odd bit of porn as much as the next person but I don't want to sit through a 3 hour long film with the odd scene of graphic porn just to experience that. I watched some of the commentary featuring Malcom McDowell who plays Caligua, hoping for some commentary on the involved oral sex scenes but alas his comments were only on the cut version, and my favourite thing he said (in reference to a guy he fisted using lard as lube to "sanctifiy the couples' marriage") was "The poor actor begged me not to stick a flower in his arse and I didn't... Oh wait I did!" Watch it if you want an overly long historic porno, overwise it's a film No Human Being Should be Made to Watch.

_________________
Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

You, sir, have a very good taste in movies. I live 40 mins from Danvers State Hospital where this was filmed. It is an extremely creepy place.

You may enjoy The Machinist staring Christian Bale.

_________________

The Room by Tommy Wiseau.

_________________

I tried the Machinist some years ago and couldn't get into it, but I was quite young then so maybe I'd enjoy it more now. Thanks for the suggestion!

_________________
Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

12 Angry Men with Henry Fonda.

_________________

The Matrix is probably my favorite movie. I remember seeing the ads on television and was dazzled enough by the visuals to decide to see the movie based solely on the visuals. As it happens, the film offered a very trippy what-is-reality twist along with religious allegory and philosophy. The film delivered on so many levels.

The Dark Knight was phenomenal due to the cinematography and the acting. Divorced of that, the plot was standard for a comic book movie.
Another Christopher Nolan movie that I really enjoy is The Prestige.

This year I've seen The Social Network and the characters, acting and script were excellent. I saw The Adjustment Bureau recently and with its omnipotent-forces-meddling-with-people's-lives plot was good. It was pretty good for a love story. Unknown was a decent mystery flick with a good twist at the end. Both movies fell short at the very end, however they were worth the ride.
Match Point is a Woody Allen movie that I guess is basically a romantic drama with a solid twist at the end. The ending really delivers.

Pan's Labyrinth was an excellent move for style. So was Speed Racer. Those two just jolt the senses.

The plot and style was excellent for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It is one of my all-time favorites.

The Shawshank Redemption is one of those undeniably good movies, too.

I also like really terrible movies.
Hudson Hawk and Tank Girl are some of my more terrible favorites.
I also really like Hackers, Johnny Mnemonic, and Waterworld.

I saw Paul recently and it was just OK. I cannot think of any movies I hate, but I'm a pretty tough critic of most movies so it's pretty difficult to get anything better than an "above average" from me.

[EDIT]
Wait! That's not true! I bloody hate Monster. I understand that the acting is good, but the only reason I can think of to watch that movie is if you are having an unbelievably good day and need to be knocked down a few pegs. Awful.

_________________
My North Star: Jose Gomez
I'm an introvert. Now shut up so I can be happy. Except for you, helpful sales bot. Also, download this.
Away from The House, yet forever near to my heart

Harold and Maude. Came out in the seventies, my girlfriend is crazy about anything significantly older than she is, and convinced me to watch this movie. It's very well done, humorous, and the character dynamics present in the protagonists actually change as the story progresses, by way of their learning how each other thinks.

Mary and Max. It's a claymation film with a dark sense of humor, and the titular characters are played by Toni Collette and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, respectively. It was one of the movies my mom watched that had a character with Asperger's syndrome in it, simply because a character had AS. When she'd watch the movies, she'd remark how I acted similarly to these characters...as if there weren't consistent characteristics of people with the disorder that could be shown in a movie. Whatever the case, I watched the movie and I thought it was amazing. The style of animation was great, the characters were vivid, and the story was dark, funny, and touching at the same time. Three words;
Chocolate Hot Dogs.

_________________

Some of my favorites, in no particular order:

Forrest Gump
The Princess Bride
O brother where art thou?
Ben-Hur
The Matrix
Fight Club
Star Trek (the new one)
Braveheart
Kingdom of Heaven
It's a Wonderful Life
Legends of the Fall
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
The original (non-SE) StarWars trilogy
The 13th Warrior
Mission: Impossible (only the first one)
007: Goldeneye
The Fugitive
Dumb and Dumber
The Edge
Shawshank Redemption
Back to the Future

Some that I thought were notable or interesting in some way but don't really belong in the first list:

Reign of Fire
Bubba Hotep
12 Monkeys
The Village
No Country for Old Men
Avatar
The Big Lebowski
Fargo
American Psycho
Limitless
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
American History X

And a few movies I hated:

300
Babel
Body of Lies
The Green Zone
SAW (All of them)
Transformers
G.I. Joe

If anyone wants me to expound on any of these, I will do so.

_________________
"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"

+1

I wouldn't mind if you expounded on your hatred of 300 and the first SAW film (granted after the first SAW film things lose their way a bit, but I always thought the first was good). Also being an army guy I thought you'd love things like 300 (seeing as you also like Kingdom of Heaven and Braveheart), and I know that's a sweeping generalisation but still it makes me curious as to why you hate it. Me myself I thought 300 was alright, nothing spectacular (escpecially in its almost total lack of story) but it was at least visually entertaining to watch.

Everyone else, thanks for the replies. I tend to watch a lot of films so hearing about more is always good. I think I'm going to give Session 9 another whirl tonight.

_________________
Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

Kingdom of Heaven and Braveheart werent homoerotic CGI fests like 300.

_________________

I love the Saw movies but don't grant them "favorite" rank because I don't ever need to see them again. I saw them, I enjoyed them, cannot claim that they are "good," so they aren't favorites. I did think the original Saw film qualifies as "good," but I'm still over it.

The first Transformers from Michael Bay was nearly flawless. I watched it slack-jawed with amazement thinking that there was nothing in it that didn't need to be there. Then the Autobots stomped around Shia LaBeouf's garden like a bunch of stooges and then the movie degraded to "mediocre" status.
Michael Bay's second Transformers movie was ruined by the thug ice cream truck characters. I've abandoned the franchise.

_________________
My North Star: Jose Gomez
I'm an introvert. Now shut up so I can be happy. Except for you, helpful sales bot. Also, download this.
Away from The House, yet forever near to my heart

Tom Kenny (a.k.a. Spongebob) was the voice of those ice cream trucks.

_________________

My favorites. not in partticular order as well:

Transformers: The Movie
Psycho
Halloween I
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Godfather
Scarface
Ben Hur
O brother where art thou?
Kill Bill
Sin City
Ghostbusters
Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade
Zwartboek
De Aanslag
The 13th Warrior
The Dark Knight
Braindead

Movies that I hate:

Transformers Trilogy I have not seen this movies and I never will be. That´s because I am a real Transformers purist.

GI Joe Same thing.
Cthulhu Mansion
Halloween III and IV

PS: I accidently removed a part of this post.

_________________
Ash: [talking to mirror] I'm fine... I'm fine...
[Mirror Ash jumps out of the mirror and grabs Ash]
Mirror Ash: I don't think so. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound "fine"?

Well if you can't enjoy the odd homoerotic CGI fest like the next manly man, then by god magikot what's wrong with you?

I will ask, have you been to Denver State Prison? As I said earlier I was just watched Session 9 again tonight, and so I'm curious. Is the stuff about all the asbestos in the film true, or is that just fabrication? Also is the location a source of creepy urban legend, or do few people know of it in your area? I guess I could just hit up the wikipedia page, it'll probably have one, but hearing things from first hand accounts is always far more interesting.

_________________
Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

Have you ever watched District 9? I recommend it, but I tend to like stuff with Peter Jackson's name on it. Except for King Kong.

As for 300, it's no less homoerotic than Top Gun. I'm not saying one should like one movie other the other, I'm just giving an honest comparison. Top Gun had some pretty cool aerial combat that was so f'n good, China used footage of stuff in the movie to show the capabilities of their state-of-the-art fighter jet!
Unfortunately, not one nation is confident enough to say how well their soldiers stab stuff in slow motion.

_________________

Then you probably will like Braindead and Meet the Feebles.

_________________
Ash: [talking to mirror] I'm fine... I'm fine...
[Mirror Ash jumps out of the mirror and grabs Ash]
Mirror Ash: I don't think so. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound "fine"?

Hey my brother who's in the army said he used his knowledge of the Battle of Thermopylae from 300 to answer one of his essays when he was training to be an officer. It's not quite showing how soldiers should stab stuff in slow motion but it still shows 300 has some merit, or maybe it just shows the ineptitude of the British army.

Also in regards to other good films, One Hour Photo is pretty great. It's good to see Robin Williams in a film where he's not just a complete moron.

_________________
Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

Wait, did he use the movie or the actual battle in his essay? The movie itself is not historically accurate, and would have the watcher believe the Spartans did all of the work and that there were fat people with ax-hands living in Persia. The Greeks brought far more people than were necessary to defend the pass, and separated the fighting force into the constituents' cities of origin. Greek soldiers were rotated to prevent fatigue, and when Ephialtes betrayed Greece to Xerxes, all of the soldiers but the Spartans, Thespians, and Thebans retreated. This is when they died, of course.

I like Robin Williams in most anything, but I've never seen One Hour Photo. He was in a movie with Al Pacino, too, but the title escapes me. Al plays a detective, Robin's a serial killer.

_________________

If I am not mistaken that is Insominac (sp?)

_________________
Ash: [talking to mirror] I'm fine... I'm fine...
[Mirror Ash jumps out of the mirror and grabs Ash]
Mirror Ash: I don't think so. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that sound "fine"?

The first SAW was actually pretty clever, though any positive feelings I may have had toward the movie were expunged by the wretchedness of the rest of the series.

As for 300, it blows my mind that you could even draw a comparison to Kingdom of Heaven or Braveheart. The acting sucked, the story sucked, the cinematography sucked, the CGI and action sequences were way over the top, the historical background was mutilated, and the whole thing looked like it was filmed through a shit-stained lens. The thing that I really couldn't understand was why that steaming pile of rubbish was so wildly popular.

_________________
"Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!"

Because it was a good man's movie. As you said you wouldn't understand.

_________________

Danvers. Denver is in Colorado. The asbestos has been cleaned up, but it is a creepy place that attracts a lot of homeless from Salem. As for urban legends, not sure... I havent heard any though. I wouldnt be surprised to hear ghost stories though. Abandoned, run down asylum near the site of the Salem Witch Trials, just seems ripe for some.

Seems it has been demolished since I was last there though.

_________________

I think he used information mainly from the movie and what little accurate historical information he did know to wing it. It may have been a short presentation rather than essay actually, in which case those are more easy to blag.


Yeah that's what I meant, being tired and drunk never helps to make accurate posts.

Another interesting film I saw, which I guess is so bad it's good, is Plan 9 From Outer Space by Ed Wood. Poorly acted, little to no budget, Bela Lugosi died midway through filming and they used his material anyway (and not in a subtle way like Oliver Reed in Gladiator); and yet somehow it works as a film and is entertaining to watch.

_________________
Every fresh corpse brought into that establishment meant a fulfilled promise of ungodly gladness, of irreverent gratification; a return to the rapturous tumult of the arteries which transformed my grisly task into one of beloved devotion - yet every carnal satiation exacted its toll.

Me either. When this movie came out I went with several friends to see it opening night. I dragged my feet when getting tickets because I didn't think there would be a huge demand for the movie. I think I ended up having to see it in IMAX because all of the more reasonably priced tickets were sold out. Even after seeing the movie, I don't understand the attraction.

_________________
My North Star: Jose Gomez
I'm an introvert. Now shut up so I can be happy. Except for you, helpful sales bot. Also, download this.
Away from The House, yet forever near to my heart