P4's top 10 list of movies. What's yours?

[BennyLaRue]

I'm with you on the John Wayne for the most part but he was pretty great in the original True Grit. He's entertaining as old and damaged goods - was rare for him - but the movie itself is just ok.

[wufwugy]

My list of good westerns is as follows and mostly in order

The Proposition
Unforgiven
Butch Cassidy
Outlaw Josey Wales
Tombstone
High Plains Drifter
A Fistful of Dollars

Everything else I've seen I've disliked, except sorta the True Grit remake, but there was nothing special there. Never seen the original. Are there any other westerns you'd recommend?

I guess Django is also a western, but I don't think of it as such. It's definitely good

[JL]

How can you not like Once Upon a Time in the West?

[MadMojoMonkey]

Band of Brothers is so epic... I thought of it a number of times when making my list. It's so much bigger in scope than any movie, and it's superb on all levels.

[rong]

BoB was one of the best things I've ever watched.

[MadMojoMonkey]

Yeah... not that it's in anywhere near the same league, but

Coming to America

was a great movie from Eddie Murphy... IDK if it was the first family comedy he did, but it put him on the map as being capable of more than dirty humor to me, at least... Don't get me wrong, Beverly Hills Cop is a solid film. Judge Reinhold brings a lot to the movie, but it was Eddie who made the movie watchable.

[wufwugy]

How can you not like Once Upon a Time in the West?

Sergio Leone. As much as I like a sophisticated western (The Proposition), I dislike spaghettis. I may give that one another shot though. The only spaghetti I liked was A Fistful of Dollars, and that's largely due to it being a decent rip of Yojimbo

[BennyLaRue]

Everything else I've seen I've disliked, except sorta the True Grit remake, but there was nothing special there. Never seen the original. Are there any other westerns you'd recommend?

I definitely prefer the new Westerns - they don't cheat history as much by hiding how ugly the period was socially and economically. Not all classic Westerns did that but most did. Even the remakes of good classic westerns like 3:10 to Yuma are much better because the acting in the classic period was so over the top. That said, there hasn't been that many great new ones beyond what's already been discussed. I'd put Open Range and Appaloosa on the should watch list but they aren't more than an interesting character or two with a coherent story. I wish Appaloosa was more about Viggo Mortensen's story than Ed Harris'. I'd count Dances with Wolves as a Western. I like that movie more than I probably should. It's TV but I'll recommend Hell on Wheels. Really didn't think I'd be interested based on the premise but it did suck me in on the strength of the lead, the railroad boss and the Indian sub-plots.

You're probably into the Western's closely related cousin too - post-apocalyptic? Have you seen Book of Eli or The Road? I thought both were better than their imdb ratings suggest, even though The Road did pretty much make me want to kill myself.

[wufwugy]

I'll check out Hell on Wheels. Open Range was decent but not gripping, Appaloosa was surprisingly not bad but curiously highly forgetful. The only thing I remember is how much I want an 8-gauge shotty. The Road was great, but as you said, not uplifting. Did you like Book of Eli? IMDB gives it 6.9, which for anything drama related, I've only once or twice seen a good one score below a 7.5

In other news, I felt The Road should be a prequel. Shit was only just getting started when Guy Pearce showed up. I don't know why he keeps getting side roles. He can carry a lot more weight than that

[BennyLaRue]

Book of Eli is good, not great. You'll need to suspend your disbelief but I didn't regret the two hours. Gary Oldman as a bad guy is never a waste of time. It's vaguely reminiscent of A Canticle for Leibowitz, a premise I find extremely interesting; how and what scraps of civilization survive in the face of the chaos? It's probably why I enjoy Fallout so much.

[wufwugy]

i didnt know everyoooooooone was in book of eli. should be okay then

[jackvance]

High Plains Drifter

This is probably my favorite Clint Eastwood movie. I really liked the raw, unapologetic style.

And The Quick And The Dead is good, not sure if that one's been mentioned yet.

[PlayToWin]

The Shining was good, but I'm not a Jack Nicholson fan. I love Stephen King though.

There's another version of The Shining that Stephen King was much more involved with. It was actually a 3-part tv series. I still like the original film more, but the differences are interesting.

Linky:
http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Kings-.../dp/B000077VRT

I found a torrent of this a while back.

[a500lbgorilla]

City of God got a mention and deserves another. When the guy corners two kids and forces them to choose between being shot in the hand or foot... good stuff.

[PlayToWin]

And while I'm at it, 2001 a Space Odyssey was one of the most painful movie experiences I have ever had. I appreciate that for being a late 60s movie, it is a brilliant and far-seeing work of art, but for a man in the post 2001 world, I hated the vast majority of it save for HAL and the spaceship models.

Agree with this. I'd say the same about Once Upon a Time in the West. It doesn't hold up....so much fail.

[PlayToWin]

well i liked your list so i decided to take your recommendation of The Terminal....I just wanted to warn anyone else that may do the same, unless you like really boring long shitty movies, then this one probably isnt for you.

LOL....I wasn't going to say anything till I read your response. Now that I have validation, OMG....I walked out of The Terminal. My mother was with me and she couldn't take it either.

[oskar]

Agree with this. I'd say the same about Once Upon a Time in the West. It doesn't hold up....so much fail.

I think this is an opinion held mostly by people who have watched these movies at home, which is fair enough since it may be impossible to get to view them in theatres if you don't have a film museum or festivals that play them, but I don't think its fair to judge them based on the one time you came home drunk at two in the morning and caught the second half of Brazil on TV and thought it was shit. These movies don't hold up on a small screen and a shitty sound system. Space Odyssey is a mind altering experience in the proper setting.

[kingnat]

How can you not like Once Upon a Time in the West?

THIS. One of my favorite westerns.

[ttwarrior1]

wolf of wallstreet was terrible, no idea how people liked it

[jackvance]

Because it was awesome and had quite some realism.

[rong]

And midget throwing.