Be Excellent To Each Other

So, this guy has been living in Josef Fritzel's basement under a rock all his life and has never seen any films. Which eight (in no particular order) would you recommend? The trick with this is that I don't want any repetition, so if someone in this thread has already mentioned a particular movie, you can't choose it.

I'm basically hoping we end up with a thread with all the best films ever (subjective!) in. Let's see what happens. I'll go first.

Alien
Rain Man
Memento
Django
Wall.E
Evil Dead 2
The Fly
The Virgin Suicides


Not my eight favourite films per se, but a variety of different stuff to watch. Go!

Now... you'd want this guy to fall in love with movies, so you'd have to throw in some undeniable classics, but you'd have to engage his brain with a few twists and turns. Also childlike wonder would still be in effect so you could take him from silent to talkies, b&w to colour, cinemascope etc.

Wizard of Oz
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Fantasia

Erm.. brb. Baby stuff

Police Academy
Police Academy 2
Police Academy 3
Police Academy 4
Police Academy 5
Police Academy 6
Police Academy 7
Battleship Potemkin

I wouldn't show them the decent stuff straight away, otherwise they'd have no measure of how awesome the classics were.

In summary: what Firefox said.

Shit, now you've made me want to go back and put in Laurel and Hardy's 'Way Out West'.

Eraserheid
Jacob's Ladder
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Smokey & The Bandit
El Topo
Freaks
Story of Ricky
My Neighbour Totoro

If they've never seen films it would be fun to fuck with their head.

Then Southland Tales, just to fuck with them a bit more.

This made me lol.

Also, so far, I have only seen about 4 of the films mentioned in this thread.

I can see you're taking this thread in the spirit in which it was intended.

You used Memento in your 8.

Memento is a great film.

Top 8 though? Naaaaaaaa.

Doesn't need to be the best ever 8 films, but it's a clever film that comes up with an interesting way to tell a story.

I think you're missing the point of the thread, Craster. Myp will fill you in.

Angel Heart
The Manchurian Candidate (original, not the remake)
Blade Runner
Chinatown
Casablanca
Hold The Front Page
It's a Wonderful Life
Inception

That's just off the top of my head.

I was going to say 'Groundhog Day', but myp insisted on no repetition...

The Princess Bride
O Brother Where Art Thou
Clerks
Starship Troopers
Twelve Angry Men
The Incredibles
Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Debby Does Dallas

More seriously, now that I've had a think about it:

Excalibur
2001
Johnny Mnemonic
Escape from New York
Highlander
Dune
Human Traffic
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Bit disturbed that I can't think of any more recent films...

They Live - Proof that science fiction can be done on a tight budget if you use your imagination.

War of the Worlds (2005) - showcases "where we're at" with regards to converting classic works of science fiction into modern cinematic special effects-fests. Also allows Spielberg to combine so many of his film making techniques that he picked up from different genres. There's the Private Ryan style combat action, Jurassic Park sci fi stuff, Jaws scariness, etc. Even if you don't think the film itself is much cop, it definitely introduces the viewer to what Spielberg is capable of from a film making point of view, and seeing as he's probably one of the biggest directors ever, certainly of my short film-viewing lifetime so far, this is important.

Pulp Fiction - "Popularised" the "non-linear narrative".

The Thing - Animatronics.

Kingpin - Does absolutely everything right in the genre of comedy. Also, Bill Murray. Oh, and typically of Farrelly Brothers films, great soundtrack.

Lord of the Rings - Epic epicness. Say what you like, it's a feast.

Fargo - brilliantly slightly weird. Demonstrates how a slightly strange subject matter set in an atypical Hollywood setting can still make for a great film.

American Psycho - films can be better than the books they're based on. See also: Fight Club.

(I know most of the "lessons" these films are teaching are pretty obvious to us, but that's the point, right?)

Also, I was joking about Memento. I had to pick one from myp's list to adequately troll. I chose that one.

The original The Fly or the remake, Myps?

Once Upon A Time In The West
Seven Samurai
Old Boy
The Goonies
Spirited Away
Mad Max
Mad Max 2
Shaolin Soccer
Event Horizon
Freddie Got Fingered

Curse you WTB!

I'll edit my choices.

Aw, what did you have?

And yeah, I did 10. Why the fuck make it 8 you tit?

Amelie
Akira
Battle Royale
Mulholland Drive
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Godfather
Throne Of Blood
Irreversible

Damn, your edit included one of my choices - Shaolin Soccer. Matrix effects without the bloody matrix. I can't even think of eight films I'd recommend so I'll add Back to the Future and Blues Brothers.

Ghostbusters
District 9
Robocop
Edward Scissorhands
Lost Highway
Koyaanisquatsi
Das Boot
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

- again, not a top 8 by any means, just a selection of good movies that popped into my head.

Start chronologically. Show them silent movies (climax with Buster Keaton. Reading that back, I know I should rephrase it, but I'm not going to), then something in black and white, say a Hitchcock fillum. Work your way to the last decade, but don't show anything incredible - show above average but easy to follow.

Half thought out:

An Buster Keaton fillum (pretty much any)
Dial M for Murder
The Sting
Ben Hur
Die Hard
Uncle Buck
Jurassic Park
Spirited Away
City of God
Hero

Want to fit Carlito's Way in there somewhere because of the sheer tension and chasing redemption story elements, as well as the callback to Hitchcock. But bleh.

Benny Blanco from the Bronx.

Does the person have concpet of films, or is the whole concept of cinematography new to them?

I even said in my post that it wasn't my top eight films, you buffoon.

A Clockwork Orange, Reservoir Dogs, Convoy, Towering Inferno, Ernest Saves Christmas, Terminator 2, Back to the Future, WALL-E.

What part of 'no repetition' do you not understand?

Myp has completely arsed this thread right up.

I don't want to read some posts.

I'm glad you repeated some Russell, because then I didn't have to read more posts.

Looking back I only repeated WALL-E anyway, and that was myoptika's so it doesn't even count.

And Back to the Future, you complete clot.

Regardless, I only saw Memento on Myp's list and immediately vomited, so you definitely helped me out today.

BUT ANYWAY.

I was expecting some sort of conversation about how wrong some of my choices were or something. Or agreement with my awesome choices. Or some sort of discussion. Come on guys!

Tarantino is overrated.

SNORE

Whilst I agree, the whole argument is overrated as well. Undeniably, Pulp Fiction is a pretty darn tootin' good film, and it introduced the concept of messing about with the narrative timeline to a mass audience, and it has been replicated many times since as a result of Pulp's success. (MEMENTO.)

Good list!
I'd add Fargo and Brazil.

Err, yeah, I'm doing it wrong aren't I.

Broadway Melody 1929
Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Jane Eyre (Orson Welles)
Sabrina
True Grit
Suspiria
Liquid Sky
Ghost in the Shell


There. That's one from each decade up to the 90s.

In order of watching:


Tremors - Something simple to start off with. These are nice people you will like. There is a thing to be scared of. Here are some jokes, some action, some fun. Enjoy. (Remember to explain concept of special effects in case he runs off screaming at the first death.)

The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp - Shows how much story and character and world you can fit into two hours. Feel like you've known the characters a long time afterwards.

Night of the Hunter - because it's the best stylised film out there and has a sleepy, beautiful, ruthless poetry about it.

Pinnochio - Disney's best film, and there certainly has to be some Disney in here. They made movies smarter.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Amazing effects married with wonder and human drama. Also cleverly (and also bluntly) references previous film making me look smart.

Witness - One of the best romance movies out there, no, really. Also shows how you can evoke community and make every person on screen, no matter insignificant, a character.

Naked Gun - Because extra laffs are important.

The Straight Story - Seemed fitting the education ends with a simple film about an old man facing the world. After the big ideas of previous films, and the silliness, and the action and effects, focus it back down on what's important.

Fight Club
What Dreams May Come
The Labyrinth
A Knight's Tale
Citizen Kane
Singing in the Rain
WIllie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
The Life Aquatic

I'm glad I killed this thread with my ultimate selection.

It's a good selection. Which version of Willy Wonka?

I knew you'd choose The Labyrinth, so it's not in my list.

I'm a fan of Police academy and short of remaking the original with Adam Sandler in Steve Guttenberg's role is probably one of the worst films I've seen.

My list as follows.

Caddyshack. An 80's sports film comedy that's one of my favourites, not big or clever.
Nerds. A personal favourite and they should be subjected to at least one 80's frat house comedy.
Godzilla VS Gigan. Junk film again, but they should really see one film with a guy in a rubber suit fighting another guy in a rubber suit in downtown Tokyo.
Buster Keaton. Any movie, simply because they are still entertaining.
My Neighbour Totoro. Pretty much sums up the magic of childhood right there.
Lord of the Rings. Any of them is good
L.A Confidential. Russell Crowe was awesome in this.
Batman Begins. With Christian Bale as Batman, dark reboot of the original.