The 20 movies

[DougGraves]

1. Princess Bride
2. Big Trouble in Little China
3. Escape from New York
4. Conan the Barbarian
5. Airplane
6. Hudson Hawk
7. They Live
8. The Road Warrior
9. Ghost Busters
10. Total Recall
11. Starship Troopers
12. Tremors
13. The Thing
14. The Rocketeer
15. Dark City
16. The 13th Warrior
17. Robocop
18. Highlander
19. The Fifth Element
20. An American Werewolf in London

 

I'm ready to discuss any and all.

 

[PeregrineFalcon]

17 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

15. Dark City

I think you misspelled "Near Dark."

 

Other than that, I agree with you!  😄

[DougGraves]

I don't think I've ever seen Near Dark.  I don't know that I've ever heard of it.  I'll have to check it out.

[BlackenBlue71]

6. Hudson Hawk - I think you spelled "Die-Hard" wrong. Hudson Hawk isn't even one of the top 5 best Bruce Willis movies. (Top 10, yes. Top 5, no.)

 

(And by Robocop and Total Recall, I assume you mean the originals, not the remakes?)

Edited January 30, 2021 by BlackenBlue71

[DougGraves]

Definitely the originals.

 

I love Hudson Hawk.  And it is a much more fun movie than Die Hard which is why I included it on the list.   Most of these movies have a bit more of a humorous take to them. 

[Techwright]

I still think Disney owes us a Rocketeer trilogy, though I'd be a tad afraid of the (understandably needed) recasting.  Perhaps if they put Jon Favreau over the project...

 

I'm curious what propels a film to top 20 status for you.  A few of these have worldwide agreement (The Princess Bride for one).  Some are known for their cutting-edge movie magic skills (The Rocketeer & American Werewolf being two).  But there are some on the list, I'll not name them, that I'd be surprised to find on anyone's top 100, let alone the top 20.  And I'm curious why films like Citizen Kane or To Kill A Mockingbird don't appear.  "To each his own" as they say, but I'm interested to know if there are criteria beyond a possible statement of "I just like it".

 

Incidentally, The Princess Bride is a classic to me.  I've only found one flaw with the film, and it's nit-picky.  I didn't like the use of the synthesized music.  I'd really love a special edition where the music is re-recorded using a full symphonic orchestra.  Well, two flaws: there was no sequel.  But I've gotten used to disappointment.

 

 

[TemporalVileTerror]

Casablanca blows Citizen Kane outta the water.  I get that Kane pioneered a lot of stuff in a filmic sense . . . but Casablanca is just entirely more watchable, and has an ending that feels satisfying.  

 

And the sequel to Princess Bride is Once Upon A Deadpool.

[DougGraves]

3 hours ago, Techwright said:

I'm curious what propels a film to top 20 status for you.

 

 

These are not necessarily my top 20 favorite films.  My favorite film is The Station Agent.  And I just chose that so I would have an answer when people ask what my favorite movie is.  My favorite book I say is Taran Wanderer.  Although in reality I probably prefer the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies and maybe Mistborn.

 

These are chosen for the fun action/drama category.  If you like 3 of these films you will probably like almost all of them.

Edited January 30, 2021 by DougGraves

[Techwright]

2 hours ago, DougGraves said:

Taran Wanderer

Ah, I've not heard this title in decades.  Our student teacher read The Black Cauldron to us in our 6th grade year a couple of years before the Disney adaptation came out.  Haven't seen that in decades either.

 

Fun action/drama category.  Got it.  I'd have to put some thought into that one.  I've so many I enjoy.  The Rocketeer would definitely be high on the list.  I modeled my Ace Barnstormer slightly on that character.

 

[BlackenBlue71]

10 hours ago, Techwright said:

Incidentally, The Princess Bride is a classic to me.  I've only found one flaw with the film, and it's nit-picky.  I didn't like the use of the synthesized music.  I'd really love a special edition where the music is re-recorded using a full symphonic orchestra.  Well, two flaws: there was no sequel.  But I've gotten used to disappointment.

 

 

I agree about the music. And if you haven't, I highly recommend reading Cary Elwes' book As You Wish, about the making of the movie. A lot of gold in it, and some parts are jusrt as funny as the film itself.

 

[PeregrineFalcon]

Ok, I totally agree with keeping Hudson Hawk but also adding Die Hard. I don't know why I didn't notice that it was missing earlier.

 

Also, is this strictly a list of 80's movies? If not I'd add HEAT to the list.

 

 

[DougGraves]

I've never seen Heat.  I don't actually like Pacino or DeNiro.  Except I liked De Niro in Mad Dog and Glory.

[The_Warpact]

I thoroughly enjoyed the 13th Warrior, his foray into a historic telling of Beowulf and the big bad is the last of the Neanderthals.

 

 

[Deathtrip]

(Doesn't see Tombstone on this list. Shrugs. Walks away)

[DougGraves]

On 1/31/2021 at 3:25 PM, The_Warpact said:

I thoroughly enjoyed the 13th Warrior, his foray into a historic telling of Beowulf and the big bad is the last of the Neanderthals.

 

I was sad the movie was not more successful and did not spawn similar movies.  We have Vikings and such as tv shows now, but historic/fantasy just does not seem to do well at the movies.  LotR was huge, but no one else made fantasy movies afterwards, they made GoT on tv.

[The_Warpact]

41 minutes ago, DougGraves said:

 

I was sad the movie was not more successful and did not spawn similar movies.  We have Vikings and such as tv shows now, but historic/fantasy just does not seem to do well at the movies.  LotR was huge, but no one else made fantasy movies afterwards, they made GoT on tv.

Yeah I dont get it with the success of WoW, ESO, Skyrim, Diablo etc you would think fantasy, sword/sorcery would do great. 

There is definitely a base.

I think with tv these days especially now with streaming services you can go on at length to tell alot better story. Fantasy movies just seem rushed, hell LotR and Hobbit had 3 movies each. Single movies like 13th Warrior hell even Conan cannot get out of that curse.

Luckily streaming services can do Witcher at length and realistically GoT was rushed at the end.

[Heraclea]

Being older, I would have suggested Barbarella and Black Sunday.  Maybe Forbidden Planet and The Blob.  Needs a Steve Reeves movie too; my suggestion would be Goliath and the Barbarians.

[TemporalVileTerror]

Ah, Barbarella.  A true classic!

 

Might be a bit telling about me here, but I'd definitely have The Crow and Aliens on my list.  Oh, and Gremlins 2.

 

Glad to see Big Trouble rates so highly, though, Doug.  But surely Airplane should have been a little higher!

[Troo]

Rudy, The Natural, Unforgiven, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, Good Will Hunting, Indiana Jones, WALL-E, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Apollo 13, Pulp Fiction, Kingdom of Heaven, Dances with Wolves, Ghostbusters, The Matrix, Legend of the Fall, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Goonies, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Apocalypse Now, Big, Top Gun, Jerry Maguire, Blazing Saddles, The Truman Show, It's a Wonderful Life, Schindler's List, Armageddon, Kill Bill, Office Space, Ocean's Eleven, Catch Me If You Can, Limitless.. I could keep going

 

just remove #10 & #11 to make more room Doug

 

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Troo

[PeregrineFalcon]

I have to second The Crow, Aliens and Tombstone.

 

And if you like Star Trek TOS, Forbidden Planet is also mandatory.

[Dreamboat]

 

I'm ready to discuss.

[DougGraves]

On 2/8/2021 at 2:25 AM, Dreamboat said:

I'm ready to discuss.

 

I've never seen The One.  I don't think I've ever seen a Jet Li movie as such (I think I've seen movies he appears in as a secondary character).

[Dreamboat]

2 hours ago, DougGraves said:

 

I've never seen The One.  I don't think I've ever seen a Jet Li movie as such (I think I've seen movies he appears in as a secondary character).

I recommend:

• Fist of Legend
• Once Upon a Time in China 2
• Fearless
• The Legend aka Fong Sai Yuk
• Tai Chi Master aka Twin Warriors

And then you can move on to The One, which is for advanced watchers only.

[Hagis]

Gonna shine a little light on Stargate. I remember when it came out ; no one was really expecting a whole lot from it. It kinda caught a lot of people by surprise. The main theme for the soundtrack was also well done imo.

 

Top Gun was a lot of fun, too.

[Haijinx]

On 1/30/2021 at 1:16 AM, BlackenBlue71 said:

6. Hudson Hawk - I think you spelled "Die-Hard" wrong. Hudson Hawk isn't even one of the top 5 best Bruce Willis movies. (Top 10, yes. Top 5, no.)

 

(And by Robocop and Total Recall, I assume you mean the originals, not the remakes?)

I really wanted to like the remake of Total recall.

 

It looks really good visually.

 

But it took a fairly implausible but interesting dark future world/verse/etc and made it a completely idiotic dystopian post apoc.

 

"The Fall" may be the dumbest idea in a genre full of dumb ideas.