dr4b | i can't sleep (deanna's top ten movies)

i can't sleep (deanna's top ten movies)

but i am not awake enough to do anything coherent or useful.

i'm gonna spend this time to babble about something.

how about... movies.

my top ten movies of all time --

singin' in the rain - this movie is just the epitome of a good movie. it has good music, it has good singing, it has good dancing. it has a great plot. it has romance! betrayal! it has gene kelly. it has donald oconnor. it has amazingly funny lines that have withstood the test of time. i have yet to show this movie to a friend and not have them like it. even people who don't like musicals or old movies. i could watch this movie a billion times and not get sick of it. and i have. YARRR.

ghostbusters - an amazingly well-written movie with some of the finest minds of comedy of the 1980's. this movie is just endlessly quoteable moreso than just about any other movie i've ever seen. but in addition to that, it's just entertaining. it has immortal scenes like "He slimed me." and "don't cross the streams" and "If someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!" i mean, this is just the epitome of comedy, IMO. i LOVE ghostbusters.

the muppet movie - i have seen this movie 30-40 times in my life. and EVERY time i have picked up on something new and subtle that i never picked up on before. it has some wonderful celebrities in it, it has some awesome writing, it has great music, it has great characters, and best of all, it has muppets. It has Animal's big scene, and it has the Electric Mayhem, and it's also endlessly quoteable. The other muppet movies are not as good, but the original one is a true masterpiece, and you should go watch it if you haven't seen it.

those are the easy three. I'm trying to fill out a top ten here. It's kinda hard.

Real Genius - I always wished my college experience was like this. I mean, sure, it has Val Kilmer when he was cute and all, but even more, it has Michelle Meyrink as Jordan, who everyone used to say I was like. She's cool. I want to be her when I grow up. Of course, I also want to play 80's music and build lasers. Or not. Anyway, this is just THE best nerd college movie ever.

Office Space - Ok. Imminently quoteable. Funny. Swingline staplers. INCREDIBLY accurate if you've worked in the tech sector. Has that cute Michael Bolton character. Tons of rewatch value - I don't even know how many times I've seen this but I know it's well over 15. Great soundtrack, and above all, GREAT PRINTER SCENE. I love Office Space.

Empire Records - this movie really doesn't get the credit it deserves. Sure, it's full of a bunch of silly teenagers working in a record shop, but from a fiction writer's perspective, it is actually an incredibly well-done movie. It is HARD to write a story and have a lot of characters and give each one of them depth and plot, and keep the action moving, and this movie manages to do that. It's like, the entire movie is one day, but it's THE most important day. It's Rex Manning day. You know how it goes. Also kickass soundtrack (and dreamy Johnny Whitworth, and a younger Renee Zellweger).

Strictly Ballroom - I have watched this around 30 times too. I just love the music, the dancing, the characters, the bota fogos, etc. It's got a billion plotholes but that doesn't bug me. I just want to see them dance dance dance. I miss going to Ballroom dancing classes, have I mentioned that?

Sneakers - Again, an imminently quoteable movie. I used to adore this movie in highschool. I still do, although I haven't watched it in ages. This is another one of those total geek movies, except it has like, Robert Redford and River Phoenix. Doesn't matter, it's still great. Especially things like "congrats, Marty, we'll make you an honorary blind person."

Mallrats - A lot of people would say this is Kevin Smith's worst movie. Foo on them. This is still my favorite, I have watched it many many many times. I still laugh to heck and back, and it has some of my favorite lines ever ("Haven't I made it abundantly clear during the tenure of our friendship that I don't know SHIT?"). There's so much I can see people hating about this movie, but goddamn, where else will you see Silent Bob dressed as Batman soaring above a mall? Yeah. I love Mallrats. SOOOOOOOO funny.

Kiki's Delivery Service - Goddamnit, this would not be on my top ten if not for Nick. But it holds a special place in my heart, and it is actually probably the one of the Ghibli movies I have seen the most, I've watched it a whole bunch of times. I love the plot and the animation and the characters and the cat and well, just everything about it. It makes me happy and relaxed to watch this movie, even if it's not imminently quotable or anything like all the others on this list.

hmmm
there are others that should be on this list probly. Like Wayne's World, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and Major League, and... But now I am going to try to sleep again.

EDIT> Oh. Good call! From

jiggery_pokery - How did I forget about Tron? Geez, it was just WAY too early for me to be coherent :)

The other irony here is that John Cusack is my favorite actor, I think, yet no John Cusack movie makes it into my top ten by far. How weird. Grosse Pointe Blank or Eight Men Out are probably pretty close to doing so, though.

EDIT 2> On the bus this morning I realized I forgot Pleasantville. And Back to the Future (which is DEFINITELY in my top 10). I need to rethink this post. Oh, and for my own sentimental value there's Beach Balls, which I'm figuring very few people have seen. I also have a lot of sentimental ties to the movie PCU.

If you actually read the list, why not tell me if you agree or disagree with me? Then I'll have something to read when I decide I can't sleep again! Whee!
Alternately, if you are in the Seattle area and have not seen any of these, come over sometime, yo.

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i can relate. ...
i came into work to get some stuff done. wasted 2 hours because i forgot about a hack someone did a long time ago. spent ~30 mintues undoing it and have been redoing everything for the last couple hours.

i'll be glad when this import is complete, even though i can't guarantee the results. "partial releases" from vendors piss me off. how can we guarantee we're patching it against the right content?

love the icon :D

i have a larger version of yours as my userpic in the corporate phonebook. :-P

That's a pretty geeky list. I wholeheartedly approve! :-) (...and will take the ones I haven't seen as recommendations.)

What did you think of WarGames from your youth? Might have been a year or two early for you, but it might well also have clicked with your proto-geek vibe in your infancy. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it as being only slightly less fromageux than Tron.

Oh Deanna, you're right on with Singin' In The Rain - I've watched that two or three times just this year and it's so wonderful, so perfect. The rest I've either not seen or would not merit putting on my top ten list. Although I guess I really couldn't narrow it down to ten anyway, so there's not much to that remark. You did miss the AB showing of Mallrats this past week, how sad.

We have really similar tastes! I actually wore out the first VHS copy of the muppet movie that I had. *grin*

!!!!!! <3 DEANNA

I love so many of these too!

Kiki's - I saw this movie back in like 1997 or something and totally fell in love with it, and couldn't find it anywhere until the recent re-release on DVD. I cried when I watched it again! I love this movie so much

Mallrats - Totally the only Kevin Smith movie I can watch over and over again. It has TONS of great lines ("...except for the mustache!") and the fact that I takes place more or less in one location sort of reminds me of my youth :\

Also, Muppet Movie, Office Space, Empire Records and Ghostbusters... all awesome. I haven't seen the others but maybe I should check them out.

I've seen all but two of the movies on your list. I can't say that I'd put any on my top ten list, but I've only seen each of them a handful of times (and some only once). It's good to see reasons for you liking them so much, though. There are some (objectively) bad movies that I used to be really into. But I can't explain why. I just watched them over and over again.
*shrug*
maybe I should make my own top ten list.

I love all those movies too. Mallrats is my favorite Kevin Smith movie. I also say poo poo to the ney sayers. *bounces around* Whee I love movies, but I could never make a top ten list. I love too many.

Deanna, you need to watch Shall We Dance!!

Cripes, I thought I was the only person who loved Mallrats.

[In my unhumble opinion, you're missing The Blues Brothers :-P)

♥ ♥ YAY KIKI'S!!!!1! ♥ ♥

Ahem, anyway. I haven't seen Empire Records, but maybe I ought to, since I loved every other movie on your list! At some point I ought to figure out my top ten, since nothing after the first three are certain. So many good movies: Shrek, Clue, Amelie, Minority Report.... (You already got so many of my older favorites!)

Good list, you picked a lot of good movies that I enjoyed too. Mallrats is also my all-time favorite Kevin Smith film and a top 10 for me too. After seeing Kiki's Delivery Service last year, that's in my top 3 favorite anime movies(and been on the lookout for a cheap legit version of the DVD :p).

What about Dancer in the Dark & High Fidelity, ever seen those? If so, what did you think?

WTF? Where's the Princess Bride?

Office Space and Mallrats both definately make my top ten as well. Ghostbusters is also really good but it's been ages since I've seen it ^^;;

Anyone who says Mallrats is Kevin Smith's worst movie has issues. I find myself watching it a lot less than say, Clerks, or Dogma, but every time I see it I laugh as hard as the first, and that should say SOMETHING. I think one of the funniest things in this movie is when they are zooming through the mall, and one of the stores is "Rug Munchers carpet clearance". ;D

Office Space was great just because of Milton. And the whole "Are you going to quit?" "Well, no, I'm just...not going to go." thing. Oh god, I could quote Office Space and probably Mallrats, too, forever.

So yeah, I ramble. But the point is, you have good taste in movies from what I've seen and I need to see the rest, so I should rent some of them today because I'm sick and useless anyway ;D

I saw WarGames when I was around 11-12 yrs old, I think. (Dude, I'm only a year younger than you.) I liked it, but it wouldn't rank up in my top 10 by any means. The only thing I quote from it a lot is "How about a nice game of... _____?" before playing a lot of board games/etc.

On the other hand, I *love* Tron. That's one of the first movies I ever remember seeing in the theater!

haha. I saw Mallrats when AB showed it during my sophomore or junior year anyway! That's only like 7-8 years ago of course :)

I just love Singin' in the Rain so very much. AB did show it at some point, it was the first Thursday movie of some school year, I think '99 or '00. I'm not sure. I saw it with Carl, and he liked it.

It really is as close to perfect as you can get with a movie, in my opinion. I mean, everything about it is dead on; it was already a parody of so many movies from the late 20's, and then a bazillion movies since have paid homage to it by imitating its scenes. Sure, they ripped off a few songs/melodies from elsewhere, but WHO CARES? It is just a totally timeless classic.

hehe, I still have a really old fansub of Kiki... I've never even heard the movie in English, though many people tell me I should.

If I ever come visit you I should bring some movies to watch :)

Yeah, Mallrats. "Ye of little faith. Want a cookie?"

If you mean the Japanese movie... I have seen it. Probably on the order of ten times. I own a copy, and I watched it for two separate Japanese classes when I was in college. (Well, one, really, and then I went to watch it with Carl's culture class.)

I like it, but I wouldn't put it in my top ten. It's a very good movie, but I don't have the same emotional attachment I have to Strictly Ballroom, mostly because I saw it when I had already stopped going to ballroom classes regularly.

Kiki in english is HORRIBLE. i can't watch it. so bad.

Blues Brothers is a great movie. I won't deny that. It's imminently quoteable in several places and I do love the blues brothers' songs and I think they're crazy cool and all.

But it's not in *my* top ten. It just didn't even remotely occur to me to rank it up there, because I haven't seen it enough.

Aw, shit.

If you take out Clue, the other three WERE infact movies I pondered putting on my list. I think if I owned copies of any of them, they would definitely be deanna's-top-ten quality. Shrek is a GREAT movie, also very quoteable, along the lines of the Muppet Movie in terms of subtle humour, etc. Minority Report was brilliant, although it's not really my type of "favorite movie", I really did enjoy it more than many others in its genre. ESPECIALLY the scene with Agatha in the mall. Amelie is a freakin' classic. It's a superb movie. I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy it on subsequent watches though, and part of how a movie makes it into my personal top ten is to be imminently rewatchable. For example, I liked Memento, but I don't think I could watch it a billion times.

High Fidelity has the qualities of:
1) John Cusack :)
2) cool music
3) interesting story

BUT it's not top ten quality for me. I did pick up a copy of it at Half Price at some point and have not rewatched it yet. It could easily become higher on my list after a few watches, maybe.

Dancer in the Dark is not my type of movie at all, to be honest. *shrug*

Princess Bride is a great movie.

It's just not on my top ten list.

I have infact seen it several billion times just like everyone else... but *my* list is what defines my taste in movies, and I don't feel Princess Bride really adds any definition, as it's just on so many people's list of best movie. Does that make sense?

Yeah, for some reason, listing my three favorite movies is easy, but making a list of TEN is hard.

I'm almost up to 20 now that I've put in afterthoughts... whee.

The only part that I really hate is dub-Jiji. JIJI IS NOT PHIL HARTMAN. The rest is okay to good as dubs go, but not worth watching for people able to read subtitles.

when i read your list this morning, i started preparing a list of my own, and before i knew it, it was up to 19 titles. now i'm having the problem you mentioned above- there are lots that i really like, and it would probably be easy to pick the top 3, but choosing 10 means putting a lot more effort into ranking the top 25.

so yeah, my favorites are more in the action/drama category, so i'm picking Ronin, The Insider, and Chasing Amy for right now.

Boy, I was getting so nervous after reading 20-25 posts and seeing nothing about Princess Bride. Whew!

Office Space is in my Top 10 and I get this warm fuzzy feeling when I think of Kiki's Delivery Service, even though I've only seen it once (courtesy of Nick).

Mallrats is hands down the funniest Kevin Smith, though maybe not the "best," whatever that means? What can I say, I'm in love with Alyssa, even though she smokes in Chasing Amy.

As a kid I loved "The Muppets Take Manhattan" - is that the one you're talking about?

I must investigate Empire Records. D, feel free to help me investigate!

Hmm, are comedies inherently more rewatchable than action/drama movies?

By the way, The Rundown is really funny. Christopher Walken is the man.

Sneakers is fun, but as a geek, it makes me angry.

I wouldn't throw it on my top ten list though.

Best movie of all time - JFK.

Come over and watch Empire Records.

I think you will like it :)

No, I mean The Muppet Movie (1979). IE, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079588/

"are comedies inherently more rewatchable than action/drama movies?"

I think "rewatchableness" depends on the person.

For me, I can rewatch a movie as long as it has moments that still excite me. While this used to be comedies (à la Ferris Bueller, Monty Python, and Mel Brooks), it has developed into movies with catchy dialogue or cinematic moments (which is why I like the writing of Kevin Smith and David Mamet and the direction of Michael Mann, Ridley Scott, and Steven Soderbergh). Why did my preferences change? I don't know. (=

Yay! Despite not having seen many movies, i've seen all of your top ten except for Kiki's. I don't remember anything about singin' in the rain; i saw it when i was really little. I'll have to watch it again.

A couple weeks ago i hosted a party for my friend Will who was leaving for Japan; we watched Ghostbusters at it. Whee.

The Muppet Movie is my favorite on your list.

and "only 450 lj friends entries left to go" rew

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i can't sleep (deanna's top ten movies)

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LOL

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OMG, Strictly Ballroom!

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Yes! :)

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Re: OMG, Strictly Ballroom!

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my movies taste different than yours

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