what films that i haven't seen before should i watch this weekend?

(sorry am i not helping? I am a little excitable today!) :-(

That makes the movie sound completely not like what it is, but I really liked that scene.

Zoolander is fab too! Oh & meet the parents, if you're that way inclined!

I don't know if Narc is at your video store already. It's the grittiest cop drama evah (except for Violent Copmaybe). Tons and tons of well-written macho talk. V recommended if you're into that sort of thing.

Ever seen City of Lost Children? One of my favorite movies evah, it has a strangely compelling creepy/twee dynamic, evil, slapstick, children, weird love, amazing cinematography, pretty much anything you could want in a movie.

Narc was so not all that!

if the store has them, try La Haine (French, not sure of director but just a stylish well-shot weekend for three urban youths of differing race as they try to face up to hard life in urbania), Jump Tomorrow (charming american road trip with an unusual international flavour and numerous subtleties), Do The Right Thing (classic Spike Lee joint veering between funny, stupid and unsettling - and apt for this time of year), The Virgin Suicides (wistful but ultimately nightmarish exploration of smalltown American values and social problems, directed by Sofia Coppola), Jackass: The Movie (by Jeff Tremaine, regularly hilarious hi-jinx from Knoxville and the boyz - worth seeing for the awesome intro and outro sequences), Monsters Inc (because it will make you dam well nearly blurb if you even have a heart), Road Trip (much much much better than American Pie), Darkstar (John Carpenter's brilliantly appallingly 70s sci-fi debut, cod philosophy and alien buggery galore!), Terminator 2 (don't care, still fucking classic) and anything by Kubrick

Ben Kingsley in Sexy beast is absolutely phenomenal.

Harold and Maude

Lovers of the Arctic Circle

Monsters Inc.

The Wedding Singer

Welcome to the Dollhouse

U-Turn (Oliver Stone works some magic here - I actually really cared about Sean Penn's character for some unknown reason - and J Lo has never looked hotter)

Jurassic Park 3 (think it was by Joel Schumacher? the scene with the pterodactyls in the fog on the bridge - WOW!)

see 'Fargo' some other time, these two are actually my favourite Coen Bros films i think - great performances, great characters, great lines and nuances all over the place

Drunken Master / Master With Cracked Fingers I would happily sit down and watch right now - in a historicalish kung fu mood at the mo.

Oh Brother -> Fargo -> Raising Arizona -> The Man That Wasn't There -> The Big Lebowski -> Barton Fink

Oh and Archel you have awesome taste in movies! But I'm a Cheerleader was really good, I was quite surprised by it; it's very sweet and yet kinda dark in it's humor.

i really enjoyed this film tho the ending is ridiculously daft. a couple of scenes are incredibly tense which is M Night Shyamalan's forte i guess, and there are three genuine 'JUMP!' moments which for rank among the best i've ever seen

also, anything with Bill Murray in it, esp. Ed Wood, Groundhog Day, Rushmore and Ghostbusters

Adaptation (I don't care what anyone else says. I love it)

Rushmore (erm...just see it okay)

i haven't seen every one yet but the way the machines take over the humans...that's the most horrifying thing i've seen in animation (i should point out i haven't watched much adult anime for this very reason)

BATTLE ROYALE!

Since none of the characters are what they seem, it is difficult to have any sympathy for them (since the viewer is equally tricked). Tha bank bit is clever, the rest wholly pedestrian.

rumblefish

the outsiders

grease up your hair grab some cancer sticks and kick it old old school

or watch the seven samurai and magnificent seven back to back

or have a halloween fest

Oh! And check out Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia!

for great dialogue, costumes and performances check out "Two for the Road" directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Albert Finney & Audrey Hepburn. Why so few ppl have seen this I don't know.

I'm always moved by Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, i'm not sure if i can express myself clearly as to why while posting in a rush so i'll just say see it.

Suddenly Last Summer - Liz Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn in over the top Tennesse Williams play. Slightly less florid but still fun is 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' w/Liz and Paul Newman.

Linda Fiorentino's performance in "The Last Seduction" is amazing. (the Red Rock West mention and discussion of noir reminded me) oh, and to do a Linda F. double feature you could get Scorcese's 'After Hours'.

finally Fellini 8 1/2 is one of my favorites. Amarcord does hold a special place in my heart though for the um, interpretive dance by (maddalena?) the kids go to witness.

sparked by things i saw above this is what swam to the top of me brain, hope some of the suggestions help.

I believe that you believe it.

= my feeling towards every film Godard ever made. I liked Adaptation though. Clever or not, it was entertaining. Esp the orchid dust / telephone scene.

The hippie speaks truth. I haven't seen The Messenger, but I don't think I've seen Milla Jovovich be bad in anything.

I wasn't nuts about The Animatrix. A good chunk of it -- the Planet of the Robots bit -- annoyed me, and there wasn't much to the rest except pretty animation. But it was pretty enough to warrant the rental cost, I think.

Which leads me to believe that people like it so much partly because they're congratulating themselves for understanding it.

I know exactly the kind of thing Kenan means, but I don't think I'd really apply it to Adaptation -- the movie just wasn't difficult enough to get to qualify. Although if said people think it was difficult ... then yeah, okay.

(I liked it, didn't think it was brilliant, thought it was fun, etc.)

Also: "Rashomon"! Featuring Toshiro Mifune giving the most over-the-top performance I've ever seen that actually works as acting.

The Road To Wellville
Gravesend
The Towering Inferno
Citizen Kane
Finders Keepers Lovers Weepers
Austin Powers
The X Files Movie
Dog Day Afternoon

Why? Cos Those just happen to be a load if videos I'm trying to sell right now...four quid a pop, c'mon people!

(nb I'm not flogging them cos they're shit, they're all fantastic, just got dupe copies or whatever)

one of my faves - own the vid, watch it about once a month! yr a man of great taste mr wolk!

'when we were kings' is awesome.

come'on, it's great.

After getting past a stressful work deadline, I feel like watching highbrow fillums all weekend. Any recommendations? I have Hulu Plus, so I think I mainly just want to roll around in the Criterions.

Here's some stuff they have up that they haven't done on disc* and which I reccomend:

To Be or Not To Be
Mon Oncle d'Amerique
Two English Girls
Cruel Story of Youth
Madadayo
The Kid
Story of Women
A Man Escaped
L'argent

*Scroll down here to find a near-complete list of unissued Criterion/Hulu titles.

Pale Flower
Double Suicide

- two amazing Japanese New Wave films by Shinoda that Criterion have made available

The Stan Brakhage Anthology Vols 1 and 2
L'Eclisse

Dillinger is Dead (Marco Ferreri, 1968)
Violence at Noon (Oshima, 1966) (In fact I'd binge on that tasty Oshima's Outlaw Sixties)
Le Bonheur (Varda, 1965)

i always say Kikujiro but fuck it Kikujiro (NB not strictly high brow but i'm watching it tonight anyway)

Pulled Pale Flower out of the hat this morning, didn't really enjoy it. Ryō Ikebe was pretty hott though.

seconding Dillinger is Dead (Marco Ferreri, 1968), interesting & really good fun

Sold. I'll start it now.

wtf, I thought they had the full film, but all I can get is the trailer.

Watched L'Atalante instead. Someone will have to explain to me what the fuss is about.

Sorry you didn't enjoy Pale Flower, WmC - I'm a sucker for 60s 'urban cool' Japanese cinema, and some of the images are really beautiful - and I thought you would at least have enjoyed the incredible Takamitsu score, which I'm sure John Zorn has listened to v closely.

As for L'Atalante, it's just a beautiful poetic love story with a slightly surreal edge. Great performances, and funny, too.

I did love the score, and as you say, some of the images were arresting. In both cases yesterday, I think I went in with expectations too high -- I liked both films, but didn't love either one. "Expectation is a prison," saith the whoever.

Since I slept poorly last night, I spent from 3-4 a.m. pondering L'Atalante and liking it more as I did. A slow burner. Père Jules is quite a character.