Last movie watched...

[Funt Solo]

The Shark is right. Second choice is Close Encounters.

[Colin YNWA]

Casablanca.

This is the right answer.

[Jim_Campbell]

Casablanca.

Shark is correct — it's very good. Also, fairly short.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

What's wrong with A Nightmare on Elm Street? (The original).

This was highly original at the time, and is still an effective horror.

And the answer to the pub quiz question "What was Johnny Depp's first film?"

[pictsy]

What's wrong with A Nightmare on Elm Street? (The original).

Apparently Casablanca is better.  I wouldn't know, I haven't seen either.  Nevertheless, A Nightmare on Elm Street is still probably the next film I'm going to watch.  Then I'll do the series at least up until Dream Warriors which I hear is many peoples favourite.  After that, who knows.

[Funt Solo]

It's a great list of movies and they're all eminently watchable - I think people's love for Casablanca came shining through.

Casablanca - great characters, great drama, impossible love, Nazis, quotable bits, even a sing-a-long. It's the one that critics and audiences love equally.

Citizen Kane - required viewing for film school, a great technical achievement of it's time, anti-establishment and definitely not a bad movie. But ... required viewing. Perhaps a bit stodgy around the middle.

Close Encounters - can I say it's a poor cousin to E.T.? Don't get me wrong: I love this movie and am entranced especially by the difficulties portrayed in the protagonist's marriage. Arguably a twee ending. Great homage in The Goodies.  Everyone gets to play those notes on the piano.

The Great Escape - embedded in my childhood psyche as the best of the mini-genre of POW movies. Steve McQueen has never been cooler.  The tragedy of the various characters is compelling. Nazis.

A Nightmare on Elm Street - not a bad slasher - certainly caused a stir on initial release. But I've never wanted to re-watch it. Maybe that's just me and horror movies, though. They're one-hit wonders for consumption.

---

Aliens - it wasn't on the list, but I can't really not mention it.

[Dandontdare]

An American Werewolf in LondonIt is a good movie.  It just wasn't a revelation.

It was in 1981!

[pictsy]

Aliens - it wasn't on the list, but I can't really not mention it.

I've seen it... many times.  That's why it wasn't on the list

Also, this may not be a popular opinion, but Aliens is my third favourite Alien film.  Alien and Alien 3 being my faves... especially the later when I saw the special edition.  Nevertheless, they should have kept it as the dog that gets infected.

I kinda doubt any film from the Alien franchise would make my top 10 favourite film list (work in progress), but Predator might.

[Funt Solo]

Alien is in my top ten horror movies. Aliens is in my top ten action movies.

(Probably. Top tens shift around all the time. I find it too difficult to top ten movies without splitting by genre. Did a top fifty once, but I was stuck in a remote cabin during a storm, so the madness had taken hold.)

I probably should give Alien 3 another go after all this time.

[Funt Solo]

How It Ends has something going for it, in terms of tense atmosphere and Forest Whitaker - we could probably watch him musing over a shopping list for half an hour and be enthralled. The main problems are an acceptance that a world so hugely interconnected and has somehow had a disaster befall it that remains a mystery to everyone pretty much through to the end, and that it's stupidly male-focused.

It could've been called Who Own Her?, as all the female characters get relegated to 1. Stay At Home Because The Men Will Deal, 2. I Cannot Cope With Difficult Situations Because Emotions and 3. I Am The Prize Who Must Be Rescued, Fought Over And Won.

So - that makes a hat trick of pretty dire movies. I need to be more picky.

[pictsy]

Top tens shift around all the time.

I had this issue and never bothered with top whatever lists.  Then I rewatched Groundhog Day for the upteenth time and said to myself "I really love this movie" and my top ten favourite films list was born.  It is a list of films I love to return to and never seem to diminish for me.  Quality is not important as it's entirely personal.  So far I have:

Groundhog Day
Big Trouble in Little China
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Patlabor the Movie

Contenders for the list are Predator and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  Revisions might be made in the future because they keep making films and I keep watching them.

The worst movie that I unironically* enjoy the most is Ghosts of Mars.  It doesn't work, it's badly acted and looks awfully cheap.  And I don't care.

*Not entirely unironic.  There is one thing that makes me laugh every time. [spoiler]The main villains goofy gibberish voice.[/spoiler]

[pictsy]

A Nightmare on Elm Street

I should have watched Casablanca.  Seriously, though, this was ok.  Nothing remarkable, really.  Weird and abrupt ending, I can dig that.  It is nice to see a Freddy that isn't wisecracking.  The acting wasn't particularly good.  It was visually very interesting and had some legit spooky moments.  The story also made sense for the most part.  It was a mixed bag.  Not much is really said about the mob justice that brutally murdered a man and I thought the "he got away with it because the warrant wasn't filled in properly" was stupid.  Plays into that whole repulsive myth that cops would be more effective if we cut the red tape and let them act with total impunity.  With that in mind, I find the underlying premise one of the weakest parts of the film.

What would have been more interesting is if the families thought he was a child killer, he was found innocent in court and they then killed him out of their own fear and ignorance.  Also focusing more on the effects of sleep deprivation.  You could have a story about families falling apart as the guilt of what the parents did comes back to haunt them.  All the while the kids are losing grip on reality and don't know what is Freddy or the sleep deprivation.  I'm guessing the remake didn't explore these interesting ideas.

I'm looking forward to A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge.  I hear it's a gay allegory.  If it is I bet it's all kinds of clumsy because the 80's.  Anyway, I hope it's fun

[Tiplodocus]

Do you mean "A Nightmare on Elm Street... more like A Nightmare on SHIT Street"?

[pictsy]

Do you mean "A Nightmare on Elm Street... more like A Nightmare on SHIT Street"?

Nope

[milstar]

I'm looking forward to A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge.  I hear it's a gay allegory.  If it is I bet it's all kinds of clumsy because the 80's.

You described the film just perfectly.