What are your Top 3 favorite movies?

[Team Andino]

What are your top 3 movies that you absolutely love? No matter the genre,time period, or quality if it's your favorite then list it. Plead your case as to why everyone should see these 3 films if they somehow haven't viewed them already.




The Dark Knight (2008)

Can't imagine there's anyone on this message board who hasn't seen this, but it's my absolute favorite movie. Without a doubt my Batman fan hood makes me bias to having TDK at the very top, but with such an incredible cast with such an exciting and tragic story told along side it makes it one of the most eye opening movies of my life. To see characters I grew up reading and viewing in cartoons in such a realistic setting that if I walk down the streets of Chicago (where it was filmed) right now I could spark the excitement of what this movie offered. It's honestly inspired me and changed my life in making me pursue more with my life.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

I remember watching Raiders almost every other day as a kid on VHS in the early 90's, it was just a fun ride with such a charismatic lead in Ford. An unlikely hero who had to make up plans as he went and would get shot and beaten up worse then Bond has in 23 films. The music is just as exciting as the film and hearing it makes me feel like a kid again taking part in the adventures of Indiana Jones. As I grew up I learned to appreciate the effort and craft to come from such a movie, it went on to spawn on a 3 more movies but I still hold Raiders in highest regard to all of them.

American Beauty (2000)

It's a movie that I saw fresh out of high school in 2006, I felt like a learned so much appreciation for life after seeing this twisted story. I felt like I had matured years by the time the credits were rolling. Instantly became my favorite movie until TDK took its place two years later.

 

[scifiwolf]

Top Gun
Blade Runner
The Empire Strikes Back

 

[Harry Dresden]

The Empire Strikes Back
The Lion King
The Dark Knight

 

[flickchick85]

My top 10 list shuffles around all the time, so the top 3 are ever-changing, but currently, in no specific order:

Brazil
This is basically Terry Gilliam's take on 1984. If that alone doesn't convince you to watch it, nothing else could. The satire, the visuals, Robert DeNiro as a vigilante air conditioning repairman...it's all sublime.

The Lion King
Disney does Shakespeare. I doubt there are many who haven't seen this, but this movie had me from the spectacular opening sequence (which still gives me chills to this day) onwards, with Elton John's great songs, Hans Zimmer's amazing score (still my favorite he's ever done), and the stunning visuals. The story is as epic and emotional as they come (there are several scenes that never fail to reduce me to a blubbering puddle of tears), and honestly, few movies have ever affected me as much as this movie did.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
While I can objectively admit that Raiders is "the best" Indy movie, Last Crusade was the movie that made me fall in love with movies. Harrison Ford and Sean Connery have the greatest father/son chemistry ever as far as I'm concerned, and I can't actually watch them without a huge grin on my face at all times. And when Indy & Co. rode off into that big beautiful sunset at the end, it was THE quintessential ending for me, as they'd live on forever in my imagination having endless adventures. (Crystal Skull who?)

 

[Loki882]

1. The Godfather Parts 1 and 2 (I consider them to be one long epic).

2. The Dark Knight.

3. Braveheart.

 

[childeroland]

1. Days of Heaven. Absolutely fluid film-making where form and content become one. Melding the humans with the surrounding flora and fauna, the story of a doomed love triangle becomes part and parcel with nature and thus as large and important and fleeting as the passing of the seasons.

2. Spirited Away. The best animated film ever made, and one of the best adventure stories. Perfect design and animation, perfectly paced, generous to its audience and its characters -- there is no real villain here -- boundlessly imaginative, immersive, subtle, energetic without the hyperactivity of lesser animated films, as lavishly backgrounded as it is foregrounded, specific without being preachy, detailed without being overcrowded, plenty of quiet moments but never boring.

3. Millennium Mambo. Erotic without being smutty, wonderfully photographed and paced, as evocative of its time and place as Lost in Translation without resorting to cliches (as great as that film also is) because it tells its story from inside a culture, even if the protagonist is lost and almost destroyed by her bad choices in men while on the cusp of adulthood at the turn of the millennium. She tells her story from ten years later, having survived, but can still access that fleeting sense of youth, with all the uncertainty, pain and sense of possibility it comes with.

 

[Roadkill]

1. The Lord of the Rings (Technically three movies but I consider them as effectively one long movie just as I think of the three corresponding books as one long book.)

2. Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 (Once again two movies that are effectively one.)

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

[DA_Champion]

James Cameron's The Terminator (1984)

My favourite movie, it has everything, great action scenes, great arc, great villain, great characters, great morality. Watched it at a young age and was really affected by it.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

Inception
Cast Away
Watchmen

 

[spider-neil]

The Matrix
Blew me away.

Blade Runner.
Oddly, I hated my first viewing.

Empire Strikes Back.
Blew me away.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

3 ties.

1) Robocop/The Matrix

2) Groundhog Day/The Truman Show

3) Blade/Batman (89)

 

[antonydelfini]

Goodfellas
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Notorious

These movies, I can watch anytime.

 

[CGHulk]

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Rear Window
Jaws

Runner ups:

Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Apocalypse Now
America Graffiti
Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring

 

[HaplessHenchman]

- The Empire Strikes Back

- The Dark Knight

- The Lord of the Rings

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Jaws
Psycho
The Host (2006)

 

[Visceral]

Dark Knight
Braveheart
Raiders of the Lost Ark

There are many films that I could watch anytime Star Trek 09 Mummy, Goodfellas, Godfather, Star Wars. I used to say films that were great on an academic level to illustrate that I am an intelligent person, but after awhile I get tire of the film elitism. Braveheart because men are led by courage not title. I believe in the virtue of courage. The Dark Knight because every boy wants to use his problems, energy, and anger to do something positive. It makes you believe in the notion of a superhero, while explaining why we want to believe in superheroes. Raiders of the Lost Ark because its the perfect archetypal adventure movie and character. What kid doesn't love or even need adventure. There are people who believe that a perfect film does not exist. Raiders will prove them wrong. The influence of this film and character has been felt ever since.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

1. Batman 1989
2. Mortal Kombat
3. Back to the Future Trilogy

 

[The Endless]

1. Alien
2. Jaws
3. Children of Men

 

[DCW]

1. Star Wars

2. Raiders of the Lost Ark

3. Fellowship of the Ring

I saw Star Wars when I was a kid and it made me fall in love with movies and story telling. I prefer the theatrical cut but unlike some the special editions really don't bother me, in fact I really think the Death Star battle was improved in the updated version. Both Star Wars and raiders had it all for me, great characters, story, action, humor, and more. Literally perfect packages in my eyes.

Fellowship hit all the right chords with me as well, though I'll say not as strongly as the first two on my list. I was so surprised when I head they were actually going to make lord of the rings on the big screen. I was so satisfied with the result. The story was so vast. The locations were so real. Truly a special film for me. Though I do prefer the theatrical to extended cuts. Jurassic park was close to overtaking this at one point but after rewatching it recently I think it will stay at number four

 

[jonathancrane]

1. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly. 4 hour cut. It's beautiful made film and a terrific character piece.
2. The Big Lebowski.
3. The Departed.

 

[gwynplaine]

The Night of the Hunter
Barry Lyndon
John Carpenter's The Thing

 

[BlackFox]

3 thats hard, it depends on the mood but I'll say:

-Fight Club
-Aliens
-Reservoir Dogs

I'm already not happy with my list!!t:

 

[Gort Baringa]

• The Right Stuff
• Schlindler's List
• North by Northwest

 

[sueb1863]

Star Wars - loved the old fashioned storyline, the stunning (for the time) special effects, and how it basically took over popular culture in the summer of 1977. ESB might be a better movie but I've never loved it the same way.

Amadeus - love the music, the lush scenery and F. Murray Abraham's performace as Salieri, the bitter, possibly murderous rival of Tom Hulce's Mozart.

A Tale of Two Cities (1935) - it's 1930s cheesy in a lot of ways but Ronald Colman's sympathetic performance as the love-besotted alcoholic lawyer Sidney Carton ties with Abraham's Salieri as my fave acting performance ever, and nobody chews the scenery like Blanche Yurka's vengeful revolutionary Madame DeFarge.

 

[CyclopsWasRight]

Life of Brian
Back to the Future
Star Wars