The Movies We Can Watch Together Thread
 

After posting in the thread about hyped movies started by Lorena last year, I decided to start this thread to see what movies, if any, we can agree on. I am almost positive that, with the thousands of movies out there, we can all come up with some that are universally liked.

Keep in mind, this is NOT a thread that critiques the latest movie you have seen, as there is already a thread for that.

So here is what you do. Name up to four movies you like in the following categories: comedy, drama, western, action, family, and documentary, with the genre after the movie title (for those of us who may not be familiar with that particular movie). Feel free to add other categories if needed. There is no winner or loser, just a good old fashioned movie discussion.

Let's begin with mine (in no particular order):

1. Unforgiven - (Western)
2. The Incredibles - (Family)
3. Anchorman - (Comedy)
4. Goodfellas - (Action)

1. Any documentary directed by Werner Herzog (Documentary)
2. Finding Nemo (Family)
3. Empire Strikes Back (Action)
4. There's Something About Mary (Comedy)
5. Schindler's List (Drama)
6. Lonesome Dove (Western)

These aren't my favorite movies of all time, but I figured that most people like them.

Dola.

Except a lot of people probably haven't heard of Warner Herzog, so I guess that one might not be right.

Are we allowed to say that there is no way Anchorman is even close to universally liked?

1) The Dark Knight (Action) - though I do know people that dislike it (no, really)
2) The Princess Bride (Dramedy)
3) A Fish Called Wanda (Comedy)
4) Wall-E (Family)

I picked A Fish Called Wanda, because I figured that's more accessible than the Monty Python flicks I love so much.

I think that should be allowed. I liked it a lot, but I know it ain't close to 100%

1. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade (Action)
2. Saving Private Ryan (Action or Drama)
3. Toy Story (Family)

Far I think I've seen one mentioned (Toy Story) where I do not personally know someone (and sometimes myself) that has a strong dislike for the movie.

1. Finding Nemo (Animated)
2. Dumb and Dumber (Comedy)
3. Shawshank Redemption (Drama)
4. Saving Private Ryan (Action)
5. The Notebook (Romance)

This is probably as good of thread as any to mention Flick Chart! Pretty neat movie rating system. They make you choose one or the other. I've rated about 1000 movies and my list is actually pretty true to what I would rate them at.

http://www.flickchart.com/DanGarion

Don't mind the movies I haven't seen, I didn't want to vote on some of the challenges it was putting up, so I've chose that option at times.

Sorry, Sun Tzu, but I believe I'm one of the few people (so it seems) who doesn't like Shawshank Redemption.

Wow. Just wow.

I'm not sure which of your categories it would fall into (I can see a couple), but The Usual Suspects belongs on the list.

No offense meant about your opinion, of course. I'm just shocked someone couldn't like what I consider possibly a perfect movie.

(Directed at ISiddiqui)

On other hand I see people who don't like There Will Be Blood. These things happen ;)

Thanks, I will take a look at this.

I can't help but notice we might as well pretty much put the entire Pixar list on here. I know I have all but 2 on DVD, personally.

SI

I'd agree with this. Rare is the person who dislikes a Pixar film I've found. They may not consider it to be as amazing as another person, but they generally will find them somewhat entertaining.

Are you really trying to put pile of feces up next to Shawshank?

See... my point is made.

I think the run with Pixar may end with Up. I know a lot of people that were disappointed in that movie.

If I get the concept of the thread right, we're posting some personal favorites by genre and then watching to see if some of those end up being pretty much universally liked by the FOFC. And I say pretty much, because I can't imagine we'd ever find something that didn't get at least one naysayer. I'll use me never being able to work up any desire to even watch Saving Private Ryan as an example of how there'll always be at least one in every crowd.

Of those listed so far, I can definitely stand as a "not universal" on Anchorman, Dumb & Dumber, and ... Mary, which is interesting since that's the bulk of the comedy category. I wonder if comedy might be the most subjective category of all & prove to be the toughest to find a supermajority on?

It might be contrary to what you might expect from me, but I can't knock Shawshank off the list even given my (easily anticipated) feelings about Tim Robbins. The movie was extremely well done IMO, no matter what I think of the guy. Didn't intentionally see it but got sucked into it on cable years back & have to give credit where it's due.

Interesting to me at least to note that you went with The Incredibles for animation & that was my first thought too. Wall-E wouldn't have crossed my mind immediately but is a very legit contender I think.

As for the original concept of the thread (or what I think it was) I wonder how best to deal with people who simply don't like virtually anything in a particular genre, such as me with what I'll politely call "modern comedy"? Do we have to disqualify anyone who hasn't seen a movie? Or all of a movie? Or is ten minutes before deciding "this isn't for me" plenty for our purposes? What about being "meh" instead of actively liking or disliking? If I'm meh but a movie didn't cause me to ponder poking my eyes out with a sharp stick, am I just neutral and neither consensus forming or blocking?

Anyway, I'll throw a couple of titles out there and open up a category as well.

White Men Can't Jump - Dramedy(?)
Die Hard - Action
Sunset Boulevard - Classic / B&W

W. T. F.

Really? I've heard nothing but praise... why were they disappointed?

You can list as many or as few in whatever genre you would like. There are really no rules here except for the decency rules that apply to any online forum. I also think that Shawshank Redemption is a good movie, but I cannot stand Tim Robbins as a person. But that is my opinion and has nothing to do with the movie itself.

Also, in the realm of comedy, I also still to this day enjoy Spaceballs.

Damn. I really thought I had hit the nail on the head with Shawshank too. I mean...not to crap on your opinion, especially with movies. I know the spectrum of peoples opinions on movies can damn near be as wide as politics...but...what could you possibly not like about that film?

Oh, I'll add Slumdog Millionaire (aside from a few outraged Indians that they actually showed poverty)

To be frank, it bored me.

Up is my favorite Pixar so far.

Well, I guess story and character development isn't for everybody ;)

I also was not a big fan of Slumdog, though it's hard to say if I would have had a different opinion on it if it hadn't generated so much damn press. I tried really hard to watch it without expectations, but I would in no way, shape, or form call it a "good" movie. Again, just my opinion...it's watchable, but I would never considering purchasing it.

My nominations for a few more categories:

Silverado (western)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (action)
Ghostbusters (comedy)

BTW FWIW, my all time favorite film is The Deer Hunter which I would never consider putting on one of these lists.

Airplane (comedy)
Braveheart (drama)
Die Hard (action)
The Wizard of Oz (family)

The perfect movie is Airplane!, and I will fight your fucking asses to the death over this. I'm not playing.

Dola

rowech beat me to it.

Oh I know, I actually just kind of liked your original concept which I interpreted as being more about "what movies would turn out to be nearly universally liked here" than "what are the favorite movies of individual FOFC'ers". That's kind of a different spin on the subject & I thought it was interesting but at some point we'd probably need to reach some conclusion about what qualifies/disqualifies a movie from the coveted FOFC Seal of Approval


White Men is a pretty good example too. It's nowhere near a favorite of mine, wouldn't even come close to making a list of the top 100 movies I've enjoyed most in my life. But I liked it reasonably well and didn't actively dislike it by any means. That might be a movie that a strong consensus would build around. A serious favorite of mine like Glengarry Glenross on the other hand, I'd be surprised if it could get more than a 60% approval rating here since the style isn't everybody's cup of tea.

/threadjack on

I've just got to say, that's one fugly seal....that's like the Scottie Pippen of the seal world.

/threadjack off

While the movie is a favorite of mine (so we disagree there), I am totally with you on getting a general consensus regarding the film. I'm sure there are people out there who dislike it, but it seems like a difficult thing to say. At the very least, it's a fun movie to watch. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of spoiling the outcome of the Woody Harrelson-Rosie Perez subplot, and now she won't watch the movie. Ah, well. I guess she probably wouldn't really get the movie anyway, but I still don't think she'd dislike it.

Just for some sort of frame of reference (flawed as it might be), here's a few of the highest rated films by genre on imdb.com I'm skipping over some obscure titles that have less than 10,000 votes.

Comedy -- Up, Dr. Strangelove, Forrest Gump
Action -- Dark Knight, Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, LOTR:Return of the King
Drama -- Shawshank, The Godfather, Godfather II, Pulp Fiction

That's how I felt about The Departed. Solid movie but not even close to how some ppl feel about it.

I think I've mentioned this in one of the previous movie threads, but I hate that movie with the burning fury of 10,000 suns.

I think it's pretty hard to find someone who didn't like the first Indiana Jones movie. Or Toy Story and the Incredibles.

What about The Godfather?

EDIT: Duh, you mentioned that.

DOLA EDIT: I loved Dr. Strangelove, but I can't imagine a consensus on that.

Gladiator- Action
Comedy- South Park Movie
Drama- The godfather
Drama- American History X

Forrest Gump was not a comedy...

Shirley you must be joking.

I dunno, among people who've watched it I think you might have a reasonable shot at one.

Kind of goes back to my thinking about what impact movies you'd never sit through has on consensus building though.

You might even be able to go so far as to include documentaries ABOUT Warner Herzog, as Burden of Dreams is freaking awesome as well.

..on that topic, I just watched Encounters at the End of the World recently, and loved it, primarily because it was 80% interesting doc, and 20% Herzog going off the rails. It must've been shot right after the March of the Penguins hype, as he kept talking about Penguins contemptuously, and at the start of the film made sure to note that he wasn't going to talk about, or to, any gotdamn penguins......but of course, he does. Only, his interest in Penguins has become somewhat skewed, and all of his questions seem to revolve around the question "can penguins GO INSANE???". Sometime later they even manage to stumble upon an insane penguin...according to Herzog.

This being a doc about Antartica, you would expect to include at least some commentary on global warming, and the like, and Herzog does manage to slip some of that in...only, his concerns are again a little skewed, he doesn't bother talking about what we need to do to change, or any of that crap, he just posits that humans will eventually become extinct, regardless of our best actions and efforts, and one day aliens will come to our planet and their archeologists dig up our relics and wonder just what the hell we were and what we were doing here. Classic Herzog.

Airplane is a good chose for spoof/comedy. You probably want to be specific in categories because there are some that will have a general dislike against whole genre's, in airplane's case the goofy comedy in spoofs.

Toy Story is a great choice for family movie, if I recall it was an extremely rare 100% on rotten tomatoes.

Braveheart is a good choice for the historic epic.

My sports choice would be Rudy, as I've never heard anyone dislike the movie, and I know tons of people that hate Notre Dame.

Action sounds like a really cool gladiator movie!! ;)

Oh crap, I'm going to be the bad guy again. Sorry. Me and my friend laughed at Rudy throughout the whole movie (though we were drinking a bit).

Well, see, sounds like it was a movie you "liked" if you laughed through the whole thing. ;)