Epitome of Your Favourite Genre?

liah

I'm going to post again when I properly mull this over, but I'm curious to see how people view the genres they appreciate and find out what people look to take away from their films.

My favourite genre tends to be horror/thriller/suspense (particularly those with a supernatural twist, but it's not required). Recently, The Descent, Eden Lake, [REC.], Tale of Two Sisters, etc. are the types of films I would recommend to someone looking for those genres. In my opinion (with obvious exceptions) these films combine visual style/cinematography, a well-conceived plot, convincing acting, and just the right amount of jump. But I'd imagine if you asked the next person who claims horror/thriller/suspense to be their genre of choice, they'd come out with an entirely different array of films.

So! If you had to choose up to maybe.. 5 films (can be less, more only if really worth it) to rep

Otis Driftwood

Horror has always been my favourite genre.I would typify my love for the genre with one movie,Carpenters Halloween,which is IMO,the perfect horror movie.

It is as well executed a movie as Ive ever seen,in any genre.Its a simple story about a boy that is just evil,very effective and more than plausible which is why it works so well.Everything about this movie works,the score,acting(although Pleasence veers dangerously close to hamming it up),the increasing ramping up of the tension.The final 10/15 minutes of the movie are as tense as anything you are ever likely to see.There is minimum violence,virtually no blood but it still scares the bejaysus out of you,how many modern day movies can say that?Its an oft copied formula but in my humble it has never been bettered and probably never will.Michael Bay should be made watch this on a continuous loop a la A Clockwork Orange.

johnny_ultimate

I wouldn't put myself out there as having a favourite 'genre' as such. Just having a look at my DVD collection are there are common threads here and there but pretty eclectic on the whole. I think shoving things into a 'genre' can sometimes have a negative effect, but other times a film can really shine for impressing within its given genre 'limits'.

I do have a weakness for animated films, but I wouldn't label that as a genre. Comparing two of my favourite animated films - End of Evangelion and Toy Story, for example - is pretty futile, bar the fact neither of them are live action. I think it's crazy to label 'anime' a genre too, even if I am a big fan of Japanese animation. But some stuff I love - any Pixar film, My Neighbour Totoro, Ponyo on the Cliff, the recent How to Train a Dragon - tend to have a relatively consistent, playful tone. Show me a good (emphasis on the good!) kids' film along these lines and I'll probably fall for their innocent charm. Then again, these kind of films can be as generic and dull as any rom-com (to pick one typically formulaic genre with only a few standouts) so I'm not going to like them just because they fit into a particular genre. It might help though!

podgemonster

Got a love action films with one hero out numbered by intelligent cocky villians which he knocks off one by one with great one liners.

So pretty much all Die Hard esque movie such as Cliffhanger, Con air, Air Force One and the Die Hards.

liah

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I wouldn't put myself out there as having a favourite 'genre' as such. Just having a look at my DVD collection are there are common threads here and there but pretty eclectic on the whole. I think shoving things into a 'genre' can sometimes have a negative effect, but other times a film can really shine for impressing within its given genre 'limits'.

Figured someone would mention about the "too specific" thing. I by no means pigeonhole myself into one genre, but I'm not going to lie and say I don't have a preference; given the choice between a well-recommended mafioso film and a well-recommended horror, I'd probably watch the horror first. But I'd still watch the mafioso flick. It's a minute preference, but a preference all the same. I love any quality film, regardless of genre, anything from chick flicks to sci fi, I don't care.

The preference is all I'm getting at. People who define themselves by one genre irritate me because there's so much good in all of them. But what I'm looking for is top-quality representations of a genre (mainly because I want to find out what movies from other genres I'm missing out on, to be honest!).

johnny_ultimate

liah wrote: »

Figured someone would mention about the "too specific" thing. I by no means pigeonhole myself into one genre, but I'm not going to lie and say I don't have a preference; given the choice between a well-recommended mafioso film and a well-recommended horror, I'd probably watch the horror first. But I'd still watch the mafioso flick. It's a minute preference, but a preference all the same. I love any quality film, regardless of genre, anything from chick flicks to sci fi, I don't care.

The preference is all I'm getting at. People who define themselves by one genre irritate me because there's so much good in all of them. But what I'm looking for is top-quality representations of a genre (mainly because I want to find out what movies from other genres I'm missing out on, to be honest!).

I see where you're coming from, and I definitely find it hard to pinpoint one genre I prefer. It'd be quite rare for me to pick a film over another just because it is part of a certain genre though. Some good examples of superior genre films I can think of however:

'Family': going back to my preference for animated films, I'd put My Neighbour Totoro at the top of the pile in terms of childrens' films (Toy Story a very close second). It celebrates imagination, has an iconic central character plus - in stark contrast to most kids films these days - is very muted and considered in terms of tone. There are no hyperactive visuals, no stupid pop culture references, and the only real threat (the sickness of the two girls' mother) is far more real and engaging than a hundred overblown villains.

Rom-Com: If I was stretching it, I'd put Eternal Sunshine here (it basically has the standard structure, just totally subverted) as a personal favourite. But there are a few more traditional examples: Jerry Maguire is a wonderful romantic comedy - cheesy ending and all - full of warmth, well-drawn characters and humour. Older films like the Apartment would also be far more mature and intelligent than the vast majority of contemporary rom-coms (with a few exceptions, of course).

Horror: I personally would consider this one rather tricky, since there are so many good horror films that are significantly different from each other. Things like Evil Dead (slapstick, gross out horror), the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (still a wonderfully vivid and tense slasher movie, along with Halloween), Rec / The Descent (two recent and unbearably tense 'something in the dark' films), or Dawn of the Dead stand out, but there are so many subgenres in horror it's hard to pinpoint one or two examples.

That is my general problem with genres I think - there are so many ways to approach a given genre, it just becomes hard to pick one or two defining films for me. Even with something like superhero films, I'd probably need to list three or four!

geekychick

My favourite modern genre is thriller/mystery/neo-noir (these are obviously three genres, but they can overlap?):

The Departed
Carlito's Way
Rush
Crimson Rivers (French)
Miller's Crossing
The Grifters (This is an immaculate film. A must see. Can't believe I managed to forget it the other day when I was mentioning some of my fave neo-noirs on here.)

krudler

I like action adventure movies, so for me Raiders of the Lost Ark is hands down the king of those, but you can add The Rocketeer, The Mummy, Sahara, The Goonies,Pirates of the Caribbean, stuff like that to the list. Anything with swashbuckling and deserts and all that jazz does it for me, looking forward to Prince of Persia, god I hope they dont make a balls of it.

The biggest problem with trying to narrow down genres is that within each genre are any number of other genres. Take horror as an example, while horror covers an awful lot it is generaly accepted that within the horror genre are about two dozen other genres, slasher, psychological, zombie, superantural, etc, etc

It's quite difficult to pinpoint just one film which perfectly encaptures what the horror genre is. I could easily pick 4 films from each subgenre and spend all night discussing them.

niallon

Myself and ned could talk all day about how Halloween is the absolute perfect horror film I think so I'll just leave it with a +1 on Halloween being the ultimate horror film.

As for other genres:

Action: Die Hard. End of.

Comedy: I always think this is one of the toughest genres to find an absolute in. See, I've watched plenty of comedies that were just god awful terrible films but still made me laugh. Are they then great comedies but bad films? Or is the fact that they are bad films enough to take away their right to be good comedies? Hurts my head to be honest! I'd say The Hangover is one of the few examples I would say is a great film that is also hilarious.

Outside of horror, action and comedy I think genres cross over quite wildly. Romances become dramas...dramas merge to thrillers...too hard to define IMO

krudler

Deleted User wrote: »

The biggest problem with trying to narrow down genres is that within each genre are any number of other genres. Take horror as an example, while horror covers an awful lot it is generaly accepted that within the horror genre are about two dozen other genres, slasher, psychological, zombie, superantural, etc, etc

It's quite difficult to pinpoint just one film which perfectly encaptures what the horror genre is. I could easily pick 4 films from each subgenre and spend all night discussing them.

Very true, The Exorcist and REC are two horror movies, but vastly different. Take stuff like Total Recall, is it sci-fi or action? can be classed as both. I tried arranging my dvd collection by genre once, gave up after about 20 mins

krudler

krudler wrote: »

Very true, The Exorcist and REC are two horror movies, but vastly different. Take stuff like Total Recall, is it sci-fi or action? can be classed as both. I tried arranging my dvd collection by genre once, gave up after about 20 mins

Even a realtively straight forward genre such as the western upon closer examination turns out to have a slew of subgenres contained within it. Trying to choose one film which perfectly captures everything that the Western is, would be difficult given just how many different films withing each genre perfectly capture the essence of the western.

Subgenres of Westerns:
Comedy" Western: Cat Ballou
Contemporary Western: Hud
Epic Western: How the West was Won
Noir Western: Pursued
Post-Apocalyptic Western:The Postman
Revisionisti Western: Dances With Wolves
Singing ' Western: Roy Rogers, etc
Spaghetti Western: The Dollars Trilogy
Sci Fi Western: Outland

indough

you could have just picked your favourite one out of all of them

indough

indough wrote: »

you could have just picked your favourite one out of all of them

But picking just one film doesn't allow you to pick the epitome of the genre so to speak. Say you pick Outland, is that conside the epitome of the western genre of the sci fi genre? To try and boil down genres as big as these into one example is nigh on impossible.

I could pick a dozen Spaghetti Westerns which I fell best showcase the genre and everythign it stands for as I could pick a dozen from each of the other subgenres.

It's an interesting topic and the sort I thought we would discuss in film school but sadly don't.

krudler

If I had to pick one western it'd be Once Upon A Time In The West, but I could easily say Unforgiven or even Open Range (modern classic imo).

I like when movies mix genres, take Who Framed Roger Rabbit, on the surface its a playful kids movie, but its got as much classic film noir elements as something like Chinatown or The Big Sleep. A down on his luck detective with a tragic past with a drinking problem, a case thats seemingly straightforward to begin with but explodes into something major, a plot revolving around public transport and corrupt city officials, a femme fatale who isnt all she seems etc etc.

krudler

krudler wrote: »

If I had to pick one western it'd be Once Upon A Time In The West, but I could easily say Unforgiven or even Open Range (modern classic imo).

I like when movies mix genres, take Who Framed Roger Rabbit, on the surface its a playful kids movie, but its got as much classic film noir elements as something like Chinatown or The Big Sleep. A down on his luck detective with a tragic past with a drinking problem, a case thats seemingly straightforward to begin with but explodes into something major, a plot revolving around public transport and corrupt city officials, a femme fatale who isnt all she seems etc etc.

Roger Rabbit is a great example which makes the concept of a narrow genre field completely redundent, is it an animated film, a kids film, a noir, a neo noir, a detective drama, a thriller, a comedy, a slapstcik comedy, etc, etc. You could apply 50 different genre catagories to it and not one would come close to coverign all bases.

baaaa

Let the right one in - best horror/love story/thriller/film of last year.

Paddy Samurai

Just out of curiosity ,want to see which genre is preferred by Boardsies?.I know most of us will watch multiple genres ,and that there are crossovers.

But from wikipedias list , which is your favourite?.

If you could only have films from one genre,what would yours be ?,mine would be war.

DazMarz

Crime all the way...

"As far back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a gangster...":cool::D

JohnK

Apparently its Drama according to my dvd collection.

indough

tough one for me, i love both sci fi and horror but my favourite is a fairly equal blend of the two; for example alien, the mist, the thing

Duggy747

Ooooooooooooh, this is a tough cookie for me as I like most genres. Granted some more than others but I'm open to everything except romance, period dramas, and rom-coms.

I would say I like comedy but I haven't been impressed with the latest batch of the past few years. I'm an old-skool humour guy anyways with old spoofs like Police Squad / Naked Gun, Airplane! / Top Secret!, Hot Shots, Sledgehammer. I'm a "Zucker" for sight gags

I love my action, especially the 80's and 90 vehicles. We all appreciate some smart action movies like The Matix but how can you resist Commando or Rambo? :pac:

I love western films too, not really so much your usual matinee ones but the I love Clint Eastwoods movies, what a hard ass! Sergio Leone too, pretty much anything that had Ennio Moricone attached to it, or even the ones that were considered back in the day to be defining pieces in Western cinema.

Dramas, it's a bit love/hate thing. I love dramas from the 70's, much more realism and personality to them and they didn't play by the usual obigitary rules that we get so often nowadays. Ah........they knew how to tell stories back then :pac:

I'm not sooooo big into Sci-Fi films, I like them but I've never been one to understand the insane popularity with Star Wars. They're good films..........well, the 1st and 2nd are brilliant but not so hot for the rest.

I love my crime movies, especially the gangster and prison movies purely cuz the characters are brilliant and pretty much what drive the film instead of their deeds.

..................hmm................

I'll have to go with action, my posters, pictures, and god-awful puns pretty much dictate that:

"I leeve to see yuu eat dat contwact. But I hope yuu leeve enoof room for ma fist cuz I'm gonna ram it into yuur stomak and break yuUR GODDAMN SPIIIIIIINNE!!! NAAAARRRGH!!"

indough

i love westerns as well, spaghetti westerns in particular

jaykhunter

according to my DVD collection; it's Superhero films! I love horror, then sci-fi; but as mentioned; a perfect blend of the two is my fav.

PrettyBoy

Ahhh hard to choose between crime and comedy!

Goodfellas, Casino, Scarface, A Bronx Tale, The Departed, Carlitos Way, etc.

Then Dumb and Dumber and Home Alone...

I'm gonna say crime for the moment!

johnny_ultimate

Have merged the two recent threads since they're pretty much the exact same topic, but the first thread has more scope for discussion. If you're going to give a genre, at least tell us why, let's avoid yet another list thread if we can

][cEMAN**

Where TF is RomZomCom?!