Today’s movies are just crap, help me delve into some golden oldies.

Bogwoppit

Movies being made at the moment have become so bland and uninspiring that I’ve just lost interest.

The superhero trope was enjoyable a few years ago but it’s been done to death now and they’re all just boring.

Its a sad state of affairs when the Top Gun remake stands out as one of the best of the last couple of years.

I’ve never been interested in going back to old movies, I’m not sure why but I’ve never seen old as worth the effort.

Took a punt on Lawrence of Arabia today, mainly because his motorbike, the Brough Superior, is a machine I’d love to own sometime.

If you haven’t watched it then be warned, it’s a bit of an epic even by todays standards. My god it’s good though, what a fantastic piece of entertainment, the cinematography is amazing. I’ll have to admit that I have a bit of a man crush on Peter O Toole now too (don’t tell Mrs Woppit).

If you haven’t watched it then I’d highly recommend it.

Anyone else have something they’d recommend?

Thelonious Monk

Only a few years old but a Polish film called "Cold War" is one of my favourite films, worth checking out

Andrewf20

Something totally leftfield is the 1979 Russian film called Stalker. Gets 100% on rotten tomatoes and yet few have heard about. It remains my favourite film of all time and is 1000 light years from the hollywood clichés we are used to today. It's a slow watch but worth it. Think it's free on youtube.

French film La haine gets a nod from 1995, on youtube. 100% on rotten also. Dead man shoes, 2004, another classic.

Lilya 4 ever another foreign masterpiece, 2002. Depressing as hell but a devastating watch.

lawrencesummers

Usual suspects

Shawshank

great escape

Road house

Good will hunting

alien

NIMAN

Glengarry Glenross

Millers Crossing

The Conversation

Shattered

The Big Lebowski

silliussoddius

I'd recommend these (I think the recent ones are a bit under the radar):

Walk Hard

The Gift (starring Jason Bateman and Joel Edgerton)

The Grey (Liam Neeson)

12 angry men

Casablanca

Wake in Fright

BattleCorp

I have to agree.

I haven't wanted to go to see something in the movies in a good while. Nothing really catching my fancy.

Regarding older movies, I'm not going back as far as Laurence of Arabia but here's one example. We watched the old and new version of Matilda last week. Absolutely no comparison between the two. The new one is absolute shyte and is actually painful to watch and the old one is excellent (for a kids film).

I only watch The Field, and then i talk like Bull McCabe for days afterward.

"Go home yank"

Str8outtaWuhan

Birth of a nation and song of the south are two amazing movies, OP.

pgj2015

The Town is my favorite movie.

tesla_newbie

Plenty of good movies still being made though the television golden age has stolen its thunder quite a bit

nachouser

The Day of The Jackal (1974)

I'd also recommend a few Redford did in the 70's & 80's.

The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson, All The President's Men, Brubaker, The Natural, Three Days of the Condor.

Edit: 12 Angry Men is a great shout:-)

Also, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

Zulu (1964)

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - Sean Connery and Michael Caine - it's a hoot.

Saturn 3 (1980) - it's terrible but it has Kirk Douglas, Farah Fawcett and Harvey Keitel. The screenplay was by Martin Amis and he based the Lorne Guyland character from his most famous novel, "Money", on his experience of working with Douglas on the film.

Aglomerado

A night to remember is a good one, I watched recently again following the Titanic submersible incident.

Great factual retelling and no mushy love story.

Fatal Deviation.

Little known Irish masterpiece.

BattleCorp

Ben Hur (the original) is a brilliant film. I watch it whenever it is on TV.

Bogwoppit

Ah yes, Ben Hur, love that one.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly is probably my favourite one of all time, maybe just for the score alone.

Bogwoppit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831760#Comment_120831760

Everyone has seen all of those multiple times haven’t they?

Bogwoppit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831783#Comment_120831783

If you think The Grey was a good watch then I’ll be ignoring the rest of your suggestions thank you very much.

scuba8

If you like westerns ‘ High Noon ‘ is a classic.

Deliverance is an American classic.

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest another great film.

the great escape is a war movie classic

Pulp Fiction is definitely worth watching.

CalamariFritti

Just a few random picks...but all top stuff

Alien

Pulp Fiction

The Big Lebowski

One Upon a Time in the West

The Bourne Identity

Leon The Professional

Outland

The Getaway

Bit of an outlier in that list but a personal favourite 'Night On Earth'

Be right back

Citizen X is good. Think it's on YouTube.

thomil

For me, it's got to be The Hunt for Red October. Best modern submarine movie ever, by several country (or nautical?) miles. Tense, well-paced, not dumbed down but with enough clues to figure out the sub-speak.

Also 2010: The Year we make Contact - The sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nowhere near as mind-bending as 2001, it's still a taut sci-fi mystery tale told against the background of an escalating Cold War. The effects also generally hold up well.

Edit: forgot to mention that 2010 was also written by Arthur C. Clarke, the original author behind 2001: A Spacer Odyssey.

As for more modern fare, I can recommend Zero Dark Thirty.

Bogwoppit

I’m now realising that I’ve actually watched a lot more old movies than I thought, I’d say I’ve seen at least half of what’s been mentioned on here and most are pretty good.

On a tangent, I just remembered the worst movie I’ve ever see, Atomic Train, was even worse that sharknado and Warhorse.

SuperBowserWorld

Arrival

I think it's an excellent recent sci fi movie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_%28film%29

JDigweed

Watched Terminator 2 Judgement Day the other night. Incredible action movie from start to finish.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831887#Comment_120831887

Really?

Arthur Pants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831912#Comment_120831912

Y, Stephen Rea and Donald Sutherland. Plus the guy from TV show Boon. worth a watch.

Gorky Park is also worth a watch.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831926#Comment_120831926

2001 is a hard watch, bit on a side note I’d recommend the book. It’s much more accessible than the film.

Days of Heaven, The Beguiled, Heaven's Gate, Foxes.

I have strange tastes though.

timmyntc

If you liked Lawrence of Arabia OP, Stanley Kubricks 'Barry Lyndon' is a good watch

SuperBowserWorld

The Abyss Special Edition clears up a lot of the story of the original released film which had a stupid nonsense ending. It is now a great movie.

silliussoddius

Has anyone seen The Big Red One? Supposed to be a great war film.

Bogwoppit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120832080#Comment_120832080

It is

Blue850

Das Boot , Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 German WW2 U Boat epic, the best Submarine movie ever

Potential-Monke

I'm gonna go the complete opposite to everyone else and recommend some modern films which are (imo) good:

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Forgotten Battle

Extraction 1 & 2: Yeah, not amazing films, but they do what they do pretty good. 2 gives The Raid series a run for it's money with that opening "scene".

Oh... thought I'd have more... Yeah, you're right, not many great films these days. I think too many are trying too hard and all end up coming across as not genuine, or they spend too long on the feels/emotion (looking at the recent superhero films here, I want superheroes doing superhero stuff, not reminding me of humanity).

Bogwoppit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120832353#Comment_120832353

That is a great movie, I only watched it for the first time a few months ago.

Bogwoppit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120832383#Comment_120832383

Good calls

jack of all

John Houston's "The Misfits" is a fantastic black and white film, with wonderful perfomances from all the cast ( incl. Eli Wallach, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift etc). Another favorite of mine is "Being There", starring Peter Sellers in his last film. "Badlands", starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen is one I keep returning to. I recently rewatched "The adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and it's great fun. Plenty of great foreign language films out there too, check out the work of Pedro Almodovar for example.

Blue850

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120832448#Comment_120832448

A few more old WW2 movies worth checking out

Ice Cold in Alex 1958

The Train 1964

AMKC

Star Trek The Motion Picture Directors Edition. It is a masterpiece and epic however if you want more action then Star Trek The Wrath of Khan is for you.

Everlong1

The French Connection

Chinatown

Taxi Driver

The Shining

Full Metal Jacket

Alien and Aliens has been mentioned already but also some good sci-fi:

Event Horizon - under rated sci - fi / horror

Dredd (NOT the hideous Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd but the one with Karl Urban as Dredd)

The Thing - there are multiple verions of this but the one directed by John Carpenter is a masterpiece of horror.

Westerns: The Outlaw Josey Wales

Pale Rider

Unforgiven

Appaloosa (very underated - cracking film with Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger)

The Long Riders

hoodie6029

More recent ones that are very good -

Hell or High Water - essentially a modern day western cops and robbers. Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine

Prisoners - Hugh JackMan and Paul Dano. mystery/horror

All the money in the world - the Getty Kidnapping

Knives out - murder mystery

Still good movies being made but not nearly as many as before. It’s all big budget now.

A fee modern classics, IMO

Unforgiven

Crimson Tide

Office Space

Pure mindless entertainment- Unstoppable- Denzel and a runaway train.

Good video essay on the demise of mid-budget movies in the last 15 years.

https://youtu.be/4mWK0mitlT8

Cluedo Monopoly

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Silence of the Lambs

Castaway

Platoon

Mississippi Burning

Larbre34

Hard to believe 'No Country' is 16 years old. Great film.

I do try and advocate for good modern pictures - like 'Inception' for instance.

But I watched 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' earlier this evening with Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier and I'd forgotten what an absolutely superb movie it is.

To put in context, Tracy lost out on the Oscar that year to Rod Steiger for 'In The Heat of The Night'

Also in the Category; Paul Newman in 'Cool Hand Luke', Dustin Hoffman for 'The Graduate' and Warren Beatty for 'Bonnie and Clyde'

Beat that competition with a stick.....

mikep

12 Angry Men

A Clockwork Orange

All the presidents men

Cinema Paradiso

The wicker man (original)

Dead Calm

That's all I can think of for now ..

Edit: My cousin Vinny

Copland

The deer hunter...

hoodie6029

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120832566#Comment_120832566

And Inception is 13 years old, if you can believe that! Also Insomnia by Mr. Nolan. Robin Williams playing against type and an aging cop played by Pacino.

SEPT 23 1989

Flight of the Navigator

amacca

Nearly all the recommendations so far are top notch and I'd have gone for them myself but I'll try to avoid repeating

The thing (1982 John carpenters original)

The producers (again original do not I repeat do not go near the remake)

The blues brothers (again original)

Don't know if unforgiven has been mentioned but it you want a slightly newer western with a more realistic take (1980s I think) then we'll worth ...but any of the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns top notch too...but I think they've been mentioned ... fistful of dynamite entertaining ...likewise once upon a time in the West

I know you don't want superhero movies but if you haven't watched the original matrix...you should...likewise the dark Knight...

Then there is memento (Nolan too)

Pitch black (2000) I thought this was excellent but it did spawn a legacy of shocking shite but again original well worth watching

Existenz....cronenberg around 00s too...I quite liked it

A bit of brainless action that may have been forgotten and kind of went under the radar but not bad by any means imo....shooter.. (mark wahlberg)...its shite but not bad 07

Then if you like brainless but enjoyable action/"drama" there's the holy trinity of

Point Break (original ..again don't go near the shite they followed it with)

Top Gun...I'll have to take issue with anyone disliking top gun....yes its **** but its also magnificent at the same time and not in a schrodingers film sort of way ...when you take it out of the box it's still good....

Days of thunder (top gun on wheels)

Ah there's so much more, I'll be back

StevenToast

How has nobody mentioned 'The Sting" yet?

I will always watch it when its on....even if its 1am!

corner of hells

This is a good thread , great recommendations.

Id like to mention the Onion Field, Munich , Das Boot and the Deerhunter again.

BattleCorp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120832383#Comment_120832383

Extraction 1 and 2 are just a pile of shooting. And not very realistic stuff at that. They are worth watching if you are into that but great movies they ain't.

One particular scene in one of those movies has the main hero taking shelter from gunfire behind a ladder. A ladder. 🤣