Movie Experiment and Results (long)

[gremcint]

So on facebook and in a chat room I solicited random movie recommendations. The rules were simple and left pretty open ended: Non horror, Non Porn, In English recommend a movie, one per person no recommending a series, pick one, if I haven't see it goes in the queue.

The idea is to try out new things and see what people recommend and see something different (and one of them, oh yeah, it was different).

So here are the results:

despite the rules being easy both run lola run and troll hunter were suggested and skipped because they aren't available IN ENGLISH. I don't mean subtitles, I mean English Audio.

Next I'm not forcing myself to watch these so I'm willing to not finish movies, so far this has happened 3 times and all of them I stopped around 10 minutes:

Wolf Children, sorry no judgement but I'm just not into the the animal human romance thing.

The Weatherman, I like some Nic Cage but the first 10 minutes was nothing but people being jerks to him for no reason and that's just not entertaining.

Kung Pow. I remember seeing part of this when I was a teenager, maybe I would have found it funny then but honestly it just wasn't that funny.


I had been posting really quick reviews of the films to facebook here's a collection of copy and pastes:

The wind rises was great, this is the first nonmagical Miayazaki I've seen, just a fun love story about a man, his planes and a girl. Aeronautical engineer in pre WW2 Japan designing planes and meeting his love.

How to rob a bank: pretty fun little heist film. not much more than that to say, really enjoyed the characters. The main guy particularly, he ran into the bank vault mid robbery and gets trapped in there with one of the robbers and through cell phones has to negotiate his safe passage out.

Holy Mountain: ok, I'm glad to have watched it but it will probably just be the once. there were entertaining parts and overall I enjoyed it but it's not often I have to pace myself through a film. There is tons of WHAT THE F*** in it. this is a very strange art film with a lot "weird because it's art" things in it.
I'm doing this movie thing for variety sake but not too many super weird art films please. Either I'd become numb to them or it'd be too draining.

Rear Window: this movie is good and well written but it wasn't very suspenseful. I think this is due to cultural references meaning I knew the plot pretty much already. However it was very neat to see something I've seen referenced so many times. maybe in a vacuum it would have been more suspenseful. I do finally know the actual answer on whether or not he killed her and not just the simpsons answer. Now I might see the remake to compare, I mean this movie was suggested twice so it might make a neat comparison.

Brother Bear, it's a disney movie, a pretty good one. I think it's the only animated disney movie I've ever seen without a romance...

Dr, Strangelove. neat movie, fun to finally see such a cultural touchstone. Confused why it's named Strangelove when he's barely in the film at all.

Cloud Atlas that was one hell of a trip, I think it's great but could use some trimming. Several different stories with a theme of human experience and reincarnation between them. I really like it, favorite story of the 6 stories is honestly the old folks home one, it's just fun.

Pink Panther and Sequels, I'd seen Pink Panther when I was a kid but I decided to rewatch anyways. Good film, fun time. The sequels? Clouseau was the least interesting thing in the first movie and the other actors don't come back at all until movie 5 apparently which is supposed to be bad. moving on.

Pi a black and white thriller about an obsessed mathematician and people trying to find a mystical number. it's... not gonna be for everyone I enjoyed it, it was interesting to see a very different style of movie.

currently watching strings a movie about sentient puppets and then I only have closely observed trains left to watch.

So go ahead and suggest a movie, rules again:
Non horror, Non Porn, In English, one per person no recommending a series, pick one, if I haven't see it goes in the queue.

Also you can probably assume I've seen all the mainstream superhero movies.

Edit to add, I've got a full queue now, not taking anymore recommendations at the moment.

[Aragarthiel]

The Perks of Being a Wallflower. My favorite non-animated movie hands-down (my favorite movie is Home but I didn't feel like recommending a kids' movie that most people seem to hate anyway).

[gremcint]

have not seen that, adding it to the list.

so just finished strings. it's an odd duck. the plot itself is just a generic fantasy plot about kings and wars and intrigue but the setting? the world? I'm not sure what word I want but it's about puppets. The world is inhabited by puppets, you have new kids by carving them and attaching strings from the sky, you kill by cutting the head string, you cripple by cutting limb strings which leads to a slave class that exist to transplant limbs that still have strings attached to others. the puppet things gives a level of serious creepiness to this film

I liked it, but it certainly won't be for everyone

[Seanette]

I could have sworn that when I watched "Run Lola Run", an English audio track was available. I certainly wouldn't have used a German audio track, since I'm sadly monolingual.

If you can lay hands on a copy of "Miss Nobody" and you're into dark comedy, it would be worth your while.

[Sunshine]

Clerks!! Kevin Smith's first film, set in a convenience store and it is seriously funny in a profane, slice of life kind of way. I really enjoy his movies, even though I haven't seen the last few because I don't like horror films.

[gremcint]

I've seen clerks, it's.... ok.

I could have sworn that when I watched "Run Lola Run", an English audio track was available. I certainly wouldn't have used a German audio track, since I'm sadly monolingual.

If you can lay hands on a copy of "Miss Nobody" and you're into dark comedy, it would be worth your while.

I couldn't find an english audio version of it.
adding miss nobody to the list

with suggestions from another site the queue is currently:

closely observed trains,
Airplane,
Keeping Mum,
Bringing up baby,
metropolis,
the book thief,
perks of being a wallflower,
miss nobody,

I limited that site to 5 I'm gonna do the same here. so the next 3 suggestions that I have not seen.

[wolfie]

How about High Noon? Yes, I know that it's old (but you have Metropolis on you list), but I LOVE classic Westerns.

[gremcint]

insert overwatch joke that I wouldn't really care about as I don't play.


I'll add it to the list. I like some westerns. It's about whether or not I can get it.

[EricKei]

Wolf (Jack Nicholson, 1984). More of a moderate thriller than horror. No slasher-type stuff, a small amount of violence, but mostly implied.

[gremcint]

well that'll make one more slot then...

[notalwaysright]

It's hard to recommend movies without knowing the taste of the person asking. I don't want to waste your time with something you have zero chance of liking.

So if you are in the mood for an older movie, how about The Omega Man? It's from 1971 and stars Charlton Heston. It's based on the book I Am Legend. Um, it gets really mixed reviews. People who don't like it say it's cheesy and forced, but IMO there's enough good to outweigh the bad as long as you don't expect it to be a masterpiece.

[gremcint]

the point of this is to A. try new things that I may not normally try, B. see what people go to for recommendations in general to see what it might say about them.
That's why I've left it open ended and vague.

No I've not seen Omega Man, I've seen both I am Legend and the Simpsons Parody so now we have our final one in the queue.

Also I'm not specifically soliciting older films, this is purely what people have suggested.

I shall report back with reviews later.

I recommend for people: Stalag 17 or Safety Not Guaranteed.

[notalwaysright]

the point of this is to A. try new things that I may not normally try, B. see what people go to for recommendations in general to see what it might say about them.
That's why I've left it open ended and vague.

That makes sense. I just have a history of blurting out movies that most people don't like. For example both Drop Dead Gorgeous and Drowning Mona are pretty weird and not at all generally liked, but I think they're hilarious! I've mentioned Snowpiercer, which is super crazy, and thought "oh boy, I hope they don't think I'm insane..."

I also tend to assume people have seen certain movies like The Godfather (love) and Dirty Dancing (hate), and Jaws (eh) so I don't even bother mentioning those. I haven't seen Stalag 17, it looks like a great movie to watch with my dad. That's a good thing, we don't often care for the same type of movie, but he's a sucker for anything about WWII and I like a good "who's the traitor" plot.

[Heksubah]

Everything Is Illuminated. Amazingly funny, amazingly quirky, a bit artsy, and then it turns so very very deep. It takes repeated viewings to really appreciate and catch all the minute nuances, but I've found it never gets old.

[cindybubbles]

How about The Chipmunk Adventure? It's a 1987 fully-animated movie featuring the Alvin and the Chipmunks from the '80s series. Not the 2000s Chipmunks at all.