Films that make you think

[hopefuldreamer]

Hi all,

I love all of the science fiction, supernatural and fantasy genres, but I constantly find that it's a struggle to get original suggestions out of people.

I was hoping, if I named a number of films, you guys might be able to help me find others I like?

Here we go:

Donnie Darko
Mr Nobody
The Butterfly Effect

The Matrix
Equilibrium
Inception
Shutter Island
Source Code
Triangle

Another Earth
I Origins
Sound of My Voice

Robot Vs Frank
Safety Not Guaranteed
Ex Machina

Ink
The Frame
Dark City
Wristcutters: A Love Story

John Dies at the End
Horns
Warm Bodies

Mirror Mask
Pan's Labyrinth
The Fountain

Requiem for a Dream
The Machinist
A Scanner Darkly
Veronika Decides to Die

THX 1138
The Signal
The Box
Primer

The Prestige
Enemy
Martha Marcy May Marlene
The East
Trainspotting
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Fallen
The Ninth Gate
The Cell
Seven
Perfume: The Story of Murderer
American Psycho

I didn't love: Cloud Atlas, Trance, Upstream Color, Filth, Moon, Alien, Prometheus, Time Bandits, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Lost River, The Village, Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, Melancholia, Secret Window, Big Fish, No Country for Old Men

Thanks in advance!

 

[moviedoors]

Primer
Time Crimes
Transiberian
Naked Lunch
Melancholia

 

[Airwings]

6th Sense
Unbreakable
Signs
Interstellar
The Others
Franklyn
Stay
The Forgotten
Lovely Bones
Zero Theorem
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

 

[gwynplaine]

Life of Pi
The Shining
Silent Running
John Carpenter's The Thing
Escape from NY
Soylent Green

 

[Malicked]

The Tree of Life
The Thin Red Line
AI: Artificial Intelligance
Blade Runner
The Seventh Seal

 

[Farren]

Hmmm, you already have a pretty comprehensive list of things you've seen, hopefuldreamer. Off the top of my head:

12 Monkeys
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

 

[gwynplaine]

District 9

 

[DarthDorranceBane]

Is I Origins a good film? (don't spoil me.)

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Fight Club.
Logan's Run

 

[PunyGod]

...

 

[PalmerTheThing]

Norbit

 

[DA_Champion]

Man of Steel led me to join these forums and write thousands of posts.

Interstellar had me reading about general relativity and ring singularities.

Gattaca made me thinm about bioethics when i was in high school.

 

[gwynplaine]

Apocalypto

 

[Spidey's Curse]

Pi
Cube
Looper
...and I second Bladedrunner and every Kubrick film.

 

[Thundarr]

6th Sense
Unbreakable
Signs
Interstellar
The Others
Franklyn
Stay
The Forgotten
Lovely Bones
Zero Theorem
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Signs makes me think "How f**king stupid are these aliens? They've mastered interstellar space travel, yet can't figure out how to get through a locked wooden door? And of ALL the planets they can plan to conquer, they choose the one planet which is 75% made up of the very stuff that KILLS THEM!"

 

[ThePhantasm]

The Transformers films make me think of the futility of life and how everything is meaningless

 

[ThePhantasm]

Signs makes me think "How f**king stupid are these aliens? They've mastered interstellar space travel, yet can't figure out how to get through a locked wooden door? And of ALL the planets they can plan to conquer, they choose the one planet which is 75% made up of the very stuff that KILLS THEM!"

Less stupid than the aliens in War of the Worlds.

 

[Octoberist]

has anyone mentioned these two movies yet:

Grown Ups

Grown Ups 2

 

[Thundarr]

Less stupid than the aliens in War of the Worlds.

Actually they're probably MORE stupid than the aliens in War of the Worlds. It can be easy to overlook something as small and seemingly harmless as bacteria. But water? That would be like Earthlings trying to conquer and colonize a planet that is 75% covered with sulphuric acid, rains sulphuric acid on a semi-regular basis, and has sulphuric acid vapor in the very air that the natives breathe. Kinda hard to overlook that.

 

[Asr]

Contact
Children of Men
eXistenZ
Her
Metropolis
Minority Report
Sunshine
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)

And I know you said films, but the TV anthology series The Outer Limits (both the 90s and 60s series) deserves a mention! Anyone who likes Ex Machina but hasn't seen The Outer Limits owes it to themselves to watch it!

Is I Origins a good film? (don't spoil me.)

Any self-respecting fan of sci-fi should watch that movie! That was probably my #1 favorite pure sci-fi movie of last year, I loved how intellectual and emotional it was at the same time.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

Thanks for the responses guys, I appreciate it

Transiberian

Stay
The Forgotten

Thanks for these One's i've never come across before.

That's the thing I find difficult. Once you start to get into a specific genre of films, you get to a point where you've seen mostly everything. You've searched all the 'top 50 mind bending films' lists.

Every now and again someone suggests and oddball one that gets over looked

Is I Origins a good film? (don't spoil me.)

I think so. Not as good as Another Earth or Sound of My Voice, but it packs and emotional punch and is an interesting idea.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Quite a few recommendations here: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=491571

 

[Airwings]

Signs makes me think "How f**king stupid are these aliens? They've mastered interstellar space travel, yet can't figure out how to get through a locked wooden door? And of ALL the planets they can plan to conquer, they choose the one planet which is 75% made up of the very stuff that KILLS THEM!"

Actually, the message is that "everything happens for a reason, even the smallest thing".

Actually they're probably MORE stupid than the aliens in War of the Worlds. It can be easy to overlook something as small and seemingly harmless as bacteria. But water? That would be like Earthlings trying to conquer and colonize a planet that is 75% covered with sulphuric acid, rains sulphuric acid on a semi-regular basis, and has sulphuric acid vapor in the very air that the natives breathe. Kinda hard to overlook that.

Humans would do the same if we're desperate enough.

 

[hopefuldreamer]

Quite a few recommendations here: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=491571

Thanks but looking for specific types of films. It's not even genre specific really. I mean, you can get 'mind benders' in all genres. It's just the way it's presented by the director, the visuals, linear or non linear storytelling, plot twists, unpredictable dialogue.

I just love it

 

[Zantera]

Any David Lynch film (my favorite is Mulholland Dr)