My Favorite Movies

this movie is my absolute favourite of all times

it has exactly the right mood, fatalistic feeling, darkness, mystery, love, hate and poesy. it also managed to hit me at the right time in the right mood for sure

a movie about revenge, justice and love beyond the grave, it manages to keep you under pressure all the time, even with the main character seemingly indesturctable at the beginning. the characters are great and unique, featuring what i find some of the most interesting and funny bad guys. the lines they trade and the acting delivered by the actors is beautiful too, and still feels fresh after all the times i watched it.

the soundtrack even manages to improve the already well created mood, with bands like the cure, machines of loving grace and stone temple pilots - in fact i first discovered the soundtrack and loved it :)

the movie manages to inspire me each time i watch it, and there surely have been 20-30 times already. i've never watched anything like it, not in terms of mood, story or mystery, but the action is beautiful too, as is every shot in it ...

yeah, i know - i'm better when ranting about one i didn't like ... this is why i waited so long before writing something about this one ... still doesn't seem right, but i will improve it with the time

Eric Draven: "Victims - aren't we all..."

beautiful
sad
perfect

Josef: "I'll learn how to swim, Hanna. I swear, I'll learn how to swim. "

an other great favourite of mine, this one features what in my opinion are the best roles of Jean Reno and Natalie Portman, and maybe even of Gary Oldman

a dark movie about a lonely and emotionaly underdeveloped hitman and a way too early grown up 12-years old girl, thrown together by violent circumstances and clued together by the love slowly growing between them it shows us unusual chracters in a hard and mercyless world, hit hard by life and still managing to protect a part of their humanity.

Gary Oldman is perfect as the mad, corupt cop, killing with a smile, or some unrelated textline, seemingly in a trance and still way too aware of the reality arround him.

it's very beautifully filmed, my favourite scene being the door oppening when Leon lets Matilda in for the first time, saving her life - suddenly she stands in the light of that door, saved, as if a path to heaven has oppened for her - beautifully done

Mathilda: "Is life always this hard, or is it just when you're a kid?"
Léon: "Always like this. "

a very great one, with so many moments burned forever in my memory...

this is a movie about hope and about staying yourself, even under such circumstances

it perfectly mixes the best use of a narrator voice i have watched so far with beautiful and still very honest pictures and great dialogues, telling the story of a man thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit. despite all the pain he meets there, all the hopelessness those high gray walls suggest he manages to preserve his hope and humanity, even to do something good for the people arround him.

i couldn't imagine a better cast for it, especially liked Clancy Brown as a nasty, sadistic Captain, but all were great.

this is one of the few movies i know being better than the books they are based on - in this case it's not that difficult in fact, with the novel being rather mediocre and a bit borring somehow. and for sure this is the best movie based on a Stephen King novel.

watch it and tell me it could not touch you


Andy Dufresne: [in letter to Red] "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

i just watched this one again recently ... it's magnificent!

the mood in this movie, the questions it asks ... very few movies manage to do this

the cast is great, especially Rutger Hauer, but they are all very good really
the special effects are well done and do not feel borring even today
the pictures it shows are dark and beautiful
the story it tells should be heard by everyone

if you expect a matrix-style action you would be disappointed - this one is more about thinking and feeling than about karate

--- Roy Batty: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

not sure if i'll manage to describe this great movie accuratly - i'm always better in complaining about things i don't like ...

a movie about an arms dealer on the surface, there is so much more which lurks below.

it talks about hypocrisy, about the exploitation of the third world, about big powers politics, about humans, lost in this human-created system ...

this movie dares to say things which many newspapers dare not name, has strong positions on many important questions, shows us a world we desperatly try not to see.

the cast is great and this is easily Cages best role. noone else could be as magnificient in this role, handle the sarcasm with such an ease, be so human and so lost. whatever happens in this movie, you simply can't hate him for this, for he is a victim himself. and he even kind of knows this.

the story and character development are wonderfully done, beautifully acted. it all feels somehow so real. and there are a lot of very good lines the characters got.

of course you have to care about such things to like the movie - if you expect an action movie, it will dissapoint you. watch it if you want to see how a fragment of our world realy looks like.

and no, this movie is not realy like Syriana - this movie is simply so much better you can't compare them. it dares to say and show more, it looks better, it has interesting characters and it doesn't miss the point.

--- Yuri Orlov: "You know who's going to inherit the world? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other."

a great movie about real people, beautifully played, very well shot
the lines the characters got are great too, as are the characters themself
it's interesting how the movie manages not to drag you down, how it manages to stay positive, while the main character is dying ... beautiful - watch it if you get it

i watched it by incident ... just catched it on tv and the title sounded interesting to me. now i'm very happy i stayed with this movie

--- Ann: "Now you feel like you wanna take all the drugs in the world, but all the drugs in the world aren't gonna change the feeling that your whole life's been a dream and it's only now that you're waking up."

"remember, remember the 5th of november"

A great movie in every direction - great acting, wonderful pictures, beautiful dialogues and monologues :)

and of course there is the political statement this movie makes - very brave and very to the point

this movie came just in time, as a mirror before our faces:

in the near future war tear the world apart, the USA ends in a big civil war falling to a third world country status and england manages to escape this. but at what price? a nazi-like regime reigns there, unstopable, corrupt, inhuman. but still there is the idea of humanity, people-rights, justice, which refuses to die. with a beautiful sense for the dramatic part a man, incorporating this idea does everything in his power to awaken the people. he is strongly stylized but still he is a human, no saint like so many comic-super-heroes, which prevents the movie from sliping in the wrong direction.

and in the end, the power is, as it always was but was not always realized, in the hands of the people.

and how far away ist this from our current situation i would like to ask?

this is for sure the best Wachowski-movie for now. i was afraid after the second matrix that they will not manage anything like the first one again, but i was wrong - this one is far better. one of the greatest comicbased movies, one of the greatest movies build on a political statement.

V -- "But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty you need only look into a mirror."

well, look what can be done without hollywood millions and special effects - one of the best vampire movies ever

the performance by the two young actors is just fantastic - they are the main force behind this one
liked the story a lot too, not too fast, not much action, rather about friendship, first love, lonelyness ... would like to read the book this movie is based on. this and the realistic shots lets this movie feel a lot more honest than every other vampire movie i watched (and mind you - i liked interview with the vampire but still it used quite a lot of pomp).
and although i don't really like the very traditional vampire myth it is exsecuted very consequent and well here

i can only recomend this one to everyone

this is one of the greatest anty war movies i ever watched ... and among the sadest ... without all the hollywood overstiling it hit me directly in the heart. do not watch it if you want a funny movie - this one is really heavy ... and somehow very beautiful

an other great political movie.

this movie is subtle, beautiful, peaceful somehow ... and it dares to talk about the so called humanitarian aid, which many medical companies use to get free lab rats in countries where human lives are cheap. and no, this is not realy fiction, those things even get to the "free" press sometimes.

starting with a beautiful love story, which lacks any kitsch and could make a good movie on its own, it slowly gets deeper and deeper in politics and reveals more and more ugly details about our cultivated, civilized society.

the director has the patience to let the story develop slowly and subtle, doesn't destroy it by pushing useless action inside.

the love between the leading characters can be felt all the time in this movie, even after the way too early departure of Tessa ... calm, strong ... eternal.

and only this departure has the power to force Justin out of his safe little world and make him confront things he willingly ignored.

all this culminates in a sad, poetical in a way ending, somehow fitting the beginning.

Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are fantastic in their roles, Weisz gets rightly an oscar for hers. (not that an oscar means much to me ... there are plenty of great actors who never get one)

i watched this one after lord of war and had thus pretty high standards for a political movie at the moment, but this movie stays not a step behind ... beautiful

--- Arthur "Ham" Hammond: "So who has got away with murder? Not, of course, the British government. They merely covered up, as one does, the offensive corpses. Though not literally. That was done by person or persons unknown. So who has committed murder? Not, of course, the highly respectable firm of KDH Pharmaceutical, which has enjoyed record profits this quarter, and has now licensed ZimbaMed of Harare, to continue testing Dypraxa in Africa. No, there are no murders in Africa. Only regrettable deaths. And from those deaths we derive the benefits of civilization, benefits we can afford so easily... because those lives were bought so cheaply."

one of the movies which stunns the viewers

watched it in the cinema and after the end the people just couldn't stand up and go ... long after the lights were on the first ones started trying to get up from their seats

the strength of this movie is it's realism - it does not try to show us absolutly evil monsters - it shows us people, humans and the fact that humans, not demons are capable of their doings just stun you ...

it shows us the popstar like popularity of hitler, the madness and the quite moments of this most famous of all austrian, the mesmerized people arround him and the ones who can see trough but still try not to. but it also shows us he could be nice to people he liked, forgiving, smiling ... and then mad again ... stunning

it shows us the last agony of the german military, of the people inside the destroyed capital and it doesn't stilize all the germans as bad or mad, but shows differend human beings - some brave, some mad, most afraid, trying to survive

Bruno Ganz is amazing and the rest of the actors are great too, as are the pictures.


surely the best movie about hitler i ever watched

beautiful movie ... just beautiful - watch it.

i had very high expectations, for i know Julie Christie is a great actres and i have watched only good movies with Sarah Polley, so i expected her to direct great movies also. so i was a bit fearfull ... great expectations are easyly destroyed ... but this movie beats my expectations.

it's about the alzheimers disease, about loosing people we love, about being human ... and about true love - Gordon Pinsent is just hearthbreaking. there are so many movies out there about love ... but this one manages to show how real love looks like. beautifully acted and shot, very well done dialogues ...

a must see

Fiona: "I think all we can aspire to in this situation is a little bit of grace."

A great movie. Set in Salzburg, Austria and made after a novel from Wolf Haas (i strongly recommend this author) this movie is a complex criticism on the society as a whole, concentating a bit on the church and the high society. It is full of sarcasm and black humor, doesn't try to show us perfect persons and feels very very real. watch it if you can get it (and if you can handle a lot of sarcasm).

can't remember the last film making me laugh so hard

the sad thing is - everything said in this film is true ...

a very original love story, managing to be sweet and very sexy without any kitsch

this movie shows us love from an unorthodox, non-mainstream direction, shows us people who are way more realistic than the characters of most movie-lovestories.
it's really refreshing to see this subject handled as well and smart as it is in this movie.

there are a lot of lovely pictures and textlines in this movie. it manages to be funny and quite serious at the same time, never making the charecters look absurd because of their wishes.

i also love the development of Maggie Gyllenhaal's character, from an insecure, withdrawn and very unlucky young women, just emerged form a mental hospital, into a woman who knows what she wants and is ready to fight for it until she finds happiness. one of the most interesting and original metamorphosises in a movie for quite a long time.

and to be honest - what does "normal" really mean? why should people feel guilty for just being different?
why should love be always gentle? :)

a great one, on the same level as lord of war.

just like lord of war this one confronts us with a rarely perceived part of our reality and with a hero who is in fact a bad guy and has the blood of so many innocent on his hands, and still we can not hate him ... what does this tell us about ourselves ... very well done

this movie concentrates on the cigarette lobby, but generally it's about lobbying as a whole, about twisting a discussion until the real topic is forgotten and than directing it in a different direction, so that the others seem to be wrong so of course you are right, about words as the most deadliest weapon

this is a very very cynical movie, looking so happy and easy minded (like the protagonist), showing how one can defend corporations killing lots of people (not someone who has done crimes mind you, but someone who is doing them right now and will do them in the future), how one can justify this before oneself and even get away with this.

the dialogues are just great and the movie performs several side blows on the system, government ... well, a lot inside i would wish to be able to tell as well and entertaiing as this movie does (for being entertaining makes people listen to you).

the visuals are very well done also, loved the soundtrack, the cast does a fantastic job and this is generaly one of the best movies i watched recently .. ah well, i ever watched.

the directing is a masterpiece for himself - loved the opening, the cigarette song and cigarette-looking introduction of the actors and the protagonist being on that show, with the film holding so he can explain the situation ...

watch it

"Joey Naylor: ...so what happens when you're wrong?
Nick Naylor: -Whoa, Joey I'm never wrong.
Joey Naylor: But you can't always be right...
Nick Naylor: -Well if it's your job to be right, then you're never
wrong.
Joey Naylor: But what if you are wrong?
Nick Naylor: -OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say:
Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.
Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end all and the all of ice-cream, do you?
Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.
Nick Naylor: -Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?
Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.
Nick Naylor: Well I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I
need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when
it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the definition
of liberty.
Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about
Nick Naylor: -Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.
Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...
Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.
Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me.
Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them." ***Points into the crowd***"

liked the first one and i love the second :)

of course i must admit i always liked the hellboy character, so i may be biased, but i also like the batman character ...

compared to the first movie this one surely has the better action, with hellboy having a worthy counterpart. i also greatly liked his counterpart, not bad as rasputin, he was rather right in his way. there were quite a lot more nice characters and creatures, liked this death-angel or whatever it was very much.
also greatly enjoyed hellboys relationship getting more depth and Liz getting more confident.

so two good movies in a row as far - not many comic based storyes get this...

if you liked the first one you will like this one also, if not better watch something else

among the best movies i know

don't we all remember 1-2 classmates which just didn't fit with the rest ... 1-2 unfortunate persons, always to be targets for cheap agressive jockes? did we do anything against it? were we part of it? or were we the targets?

well, in this movie it is more than just some jockes, but still it's all about groups, which tend to define themselves by picking the ones which are not part of them, about what we all are able to do ...

and what can one do, when everyone is aginst you? when life is not worth much anymore?

great acting and script, a very well shot movie ... i can't explain it - watch it!


and no, this movie isn't like elephant - this movie has a script ...

this one was a very pleasant surprise

i was unsure whether to watch this or not, for its description soundet cheap and uninspired to me

i'm glad i did

the story about an farmer (with an astronaut training) who dreams about launching his own rocket and visiting space surely sounds strange
but this story is told so beautifuly and unpretentious ... i just had to love it

and this is just the story on the surface

in fact this movie is about dreams and about the courage to live them, about love and family, about people staying true to oneselves ...

very well acted and very well writen it works with realistic characters in realistic (yes, they are, even if the plot sounds strange) situations and moved me deeply

see it if you can

a very very good one

first - the story is quite original and interesting and is also quite critical about our so great and perfect society in the west, which is a great thing for me

needless to say the acting is outstanding

although the movie works on quite serious subjects, like organ trade and generaly the situation of the people we manage not to perceive it stays down-to-earth , withouth the hype and useless action one could put here to get some extra viewers ...

it may look a bit slow for many of the action junkies, but it has just the right pace, the right mood and the right dialogues to be what it is

poetic

very recommendable - watch it

amazing
being a low budged production i didn't really expect too much of this one, but it manages to create the discworld with many many well known characters directly before your eyes

the cast is great - couldn't imagine better actors for it

making it about 3 hours was a good decision, this way the story feels really like the book

i liked the book (i like most of pratchetts books) and i love the movie

the only weak point are some special effects, but i really do not care about this - this is a great production, hope we will see more soon

--- Susan is reading the fairy tale "Jack and the beanstalk" to children] And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy any more. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused just about anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.

a smart cyberpunk film about power and corruption, racism, a posible future, drugs (cybernetic here, but still the same) and humans

greatly enjoyed Ralph Fienness anty-hero, not the smartest, not the strongest, adicted to the stuff he sells himself, addicted to his ex-girl and afraid of life. and very human

but the entire cast is very good as is their acting - loved Angela Bassett performance and character too and Lewis did great as the bad and selfish bitch :)

the list here is not full of course - it misses the great performance of Michael Wincott

the pictures of the comming milenium - riots, violence, soldiers and armored cars on the streets were very impressive. and not too far away if we keep our direction i guess ...

the soundtrack is great for rock fans - i had it years before i watched the movie and love most of the songs - which are also played just in the right moment.

there is enough happening to keep you awake and still it's not the overdone and unwatchable action which seems to get very modern.

very recommendable

first - i loved blanchetts acting in this movie, it's great

i have not watched the first movie yet, but i surely will after this one

this is a historical movie with very well created mood, a nice cast and very good acting

my general interest for history (but must admit i have not read much about this particular period of english history yet) has certainly addet a point in favor of this movie :)

i also loved the fact that this movie shows us the good ones using torture to gain their informations, which was surely historicaly correct
too many movies try to show us perfection where there were just human beings as us ...

the constant praying and all the priest running arround are right for that period of history too, for sure

robert fisk has complained about this movie delivering a wrong/eased quote of elizabeth when she stands before her troops, but since i dind't learn about this in history and since i really liked this movie i couldn't see his problem

this movie also shows us some really good pictures and have i mentioned blanchett's acting is great? ;)

the main flaw in my opinion would be the quite flat character of the spanish king ... in my opinion they should have either showed him less or showed a bit more about him ...

anyway, absoluty worth watching, a fav ...

the movie poster is right - Walken is the force in this movie, being kidnaped and tied up and still playing with his kidnappers ... very entertaining

but Learys character was great too - he had some great lines, especially liked his toaster monologue

the kidnappers are just the mice catching a cat and not knowing what to do with it

there is not much action here, so action junkies won't like it i guess, but if you like a more psichological approach to a kidnapping, spiced up with who the victim is, you should watch this one

Charlie Barret: "Guys, if I don't bleed to death pretty soon, I'm gonna die of boredom"

one of the best anti-utopic/parody movies i've seen for a long time - the so called movie critics can go back to talking about mainstream hollywood crap please, since politicaly relevant movies never were their strenght

in the spirit of 1984 this movie explores the concept of revolution and contra revolution and of the corruption that power inflicts upon humans, of the the ilusuion of choice between both and of the damage that idealists can inflict upon the world, but by using a lot of absurdity it is easier to watch and even makes harder points

watch it and forget the critics

yes, there are enough clichees here, but i still love this one

Hauer is a great antihero, the mood is dark and hopeless, the monster is quite funny, and there are enought jokes and enough tension to keep you fascinated
also nice is that noone cares to exactly explain what or who that monster is, providing the movie with a bit of mystery

this movie works more like alien or seven, or maybe even blade runner - on the psychological level, do not expect it to be action loaded, but enojoy the darkness and tension inside

a great plus point for the movie is that they didn't make a sequel. i guess they had no money for it, but still great - most movies do not benefit from a second part

so as i already said - i loved it, but i can see that not everyone will
still - give it a try

well, i greatly enjoy this movie and have watched it ten times at least - hate me ;p

i find it incredibly funny, granted, in a cheasy way, but still very funny

a movie about 2 garbage men, it puts our two wannabe-heroes in one ridiculous situation after the other, and while some twists may be predictable and others absolutly not, they all made me laugh a lot

for me it's a bit like hot shots, which i liked also, but a less overdone and if you like ridiculous huor you can give it a try

DragonEyeMorrison is right - this is the best Miyazaki/Ghibli film i have watched until now

beautiful story, just beautiful - watch it

what performance by Fanning - marvelous
Clarkson was very good too, but her role was more the mysteriously looking and above the world floating teacher ...

this movie blurs the borders of reality and still shows the very real problems of a little girl unable to concentrate on reality alone, unable to follow the rules all the time ... and the inability of the world arround her to deal in an intelegent manner with it

but it's the magic of the movie which makes you want it to go on and on - not the reality, but the points where it is missing
in a certain way it reminds me of Amelie, but i like this one better

watch it, even if you don't like the story - watch and enjoy the performance

this is why i totaly don't care what movie critics say - they trashed this movie that badly one must asume they never saw it

ok, so first - this is not primaly an action movie, so do not expect it to be
it is a pretty realistic tale about injustice, hatred and violence and for a change we humans are not cleaner as the monsters we hate
in fact Grendel is the real hero of this movie and i very much liked this

every character in this movie has it's own motivations, doubts, fears and foults and is way more realistic than in most fantasy movies, have no idea why some people think that once you go fantasy you don't have to stay reasonable
of course the good acting helps alot for the characters to be realistic

some great lines here also, especially when it comes to religion - very amusing

i found the visuals of the movie very well done also, although it was told to me that denmark has no cost line that looks like this ;)

and i really liked the action sequences - for a change not the overdone stuff you always get from hollywood

so this is a very good, realistic and poetic movie with a bit of fantasy inside, staying firm on the ground and i enjoyed it very much

forget the critics - watch this one with brain

i like this "how would the world look like if ..." (in any direction)
and we have a good example here - what if the germans had not lost the second world war (and the description on this site is not correct - they have not won - they just have not lost in the movie)? how would the society look like, the people, the politics...
yes, in the movie the americans do not know about the extermination of the jews, while in reality they refused to bomb the railways leading to the camps, and yes, i have a problemm with this


but i think that the mood in the movie and the wonderful acting did compensate me for this mistake.
i would like to know more about this world, about life in other countries in it...
and a movie able to do this is a hot candidate for my favourites list

watch it if you like alternatyve settings and movies with well made mood

You know, i do not like a lot of what is happening in the world and i think a lot about ways to change something... (and please don't come with voting...)

well, this people have
in a way it's what i have thought about for so long - in order to make people listen to you you have to be funny, entertain them ... most people are not idealists and do not care too much what is going on arround them
but what makes the yes men unique is their aproach ... they actually mask as company executives and show how absurde their doings are

i greatly admire what the yes men are doing

you should watch this one for sure - a great mix of entertainment and idealism

that's a very witty, funny and refreshing movie about werewolves, but also a great teenage movie, far away from all the garbage which is being fed to us all the time

i loved it from the very beginning - the girls school project and the dumb teacher talking about it - what a scene :)
and plenty more of those

a very good sequel, in the same spirit of freshness and fun as the first one

and i just loved Ghosts character
and the ending

those are two very underestimated pieces of cinema