(NA)(but not necessarily) Top 3 Movies

I watched “Them” while standing in the lobby of the theater on my 10th birthday! It was too intense for me at 10. And to make it worse, the critters (mutated ants) made noises that mimicked the sound of crickets chirping. Ugh! I didn’t sleep well for weeks!

IMDB says it’s a “recorded chorus of bird-voiced tree frogs.”

Back when I was a kid, I watched this movie on TV one Saturday evening, then got up early to deliver newspapers on a cold Sunday morning. I was walking down the street, loaded bag over my shoulder, when I heard it.

A weird undulating wail and whistle. Coming from behind. Getting closer. Getting louder.

I turned around quickly. It was a car, its fan belt slipping in the cold weather. Sounding EXACTLY like the ants in “Them!” One wonders how a bunch of bird-voiced tree frogs had been able to afford a Plymouth.

Lotsa great trivia about "Them." Walt Disney was looking to cast a new TV series, and came to the movie to view James Arness. He liked a secondary character better, a pilot from Texas who had been locked up in the looney bin because he saw huge ants flying.

And that's how Fess Parker became Davy Crockett. John Wayne saw "Them" and recommended Arness for a new TV western: "Gunsmoke."

Leonard Nimoy is in it, too.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I regret not selecting Lincoln Lawyer for my three. Why do they even make other films? :D
 
One of my still all time favorite movies is Never Cry Wolf. Older Disney movie, but was made before all their movies turned to crap.
If you like samurai movies, check out 13 Assassins. Good messy fun.
Another one I've liked for a while is Brazil. Excellent movie, but holy crap is the ending depressing. First time I saw it on TV, the last few minutes were interrupted by a commercial. I thought that was the end of the movie, and went on my merry way. Saw the full thing a few years later and... man....

Children of Men is another excellent movie.
Dark City, 10 Cloverfield Lane, 28 Weeks Later (beginning of the movie when when the zombos find the farmhouse and he takes off running... oh man)
Charlie Wilson's War... must see.
The original LeMans movie with Steve McQueen.
Pans Labyrinth, excellent foreign film...
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Rushmore, etc (or anything directed by Wes Anderson)

I think that's enough for now.
 
Ole Brother Where Art Thou - everytime I watch it I find different things I missed before. Plus the soundtrack don't get any better.
Apollo 13 - The directing and story is told really well.
Airplane! - How can you go wrong with Airplane! - cliche I know.
 
The Beast of Yucca Flats

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Dirty Grandpa

Actually, some of the worst movies ever made. Just thought I would include them for a change of pace....
 
Top Gun
Top Gun II

...and that’s all I could think of.
 
I already put The Godfather and Inglourious Basterds as my 1 and 2, with 3 rotating. Today it’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
 
The Right Stuff
Apocalypse Now
Jaws
 
Been more into watching CinemaSins lately.

I must admit the CS of Hunt For Red October made me a tiny bit sad. Ha.

Luckily I could remove sins by saying “that’s because that’s not how Clancy wrote that part in the book!”

Which makes me... that guy. Ha.
 
Luckily I could remove sins by saying “that’s because that’s not how Clancy wrote that part in the book!”

Which makes me... that guy. Ha.
C.S. Forester was a pretty big writer in the mid-20th century (Hornblower, The African Queen, Sink the Bismarck, etc.). However, his endings were usually downers (arrive home to find son dying, the thing they strove for is found to be worthless, hero dies unknown, and so forth). Just about any Forester book turned into a movie changed the ending. One movie added a whole new character so that SOMEbody would still be alive at the end....

Ron Wanttaja
 
Inception
Big Fish
O Brother, Where Art Thou
 
The Godfather
The Usual Suspects
Raising Arizona
 
I have a habit of working with a "movie I've seen 100 times" on in my home office. These make my usual list.

The Right Stuff
Chinatown
McLinktock!
The Big Lebowski
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
M*A*S*H
Good Will Hunting
 
Forbidden Planet
The Right Stuff
Twelve O'clock High
 
Iron Eagle
...Just joking!!!those tomatoes hurt!

1)Shawshank Redemption

2)Bullitt

3)Caddyshack

also noteworthy:
Casino
Donnie Brasco
Goodfellas
 
Pulp Fiction - "You think you're the most"
The Big Lebowski - "there's a beverage here"
The Godfather - "Mr. Corleone never asks a second favor once he's refused the first, understood?"

Honorable mention:
Batman - The Joker (Jack Nicholson) - "This town needs an enema"
 
Last edited:
Back
Top