Eleven of my favourite films - 29/08/2009
I’m a film geek, so it’d be impossible to choose my favourite ever, and I know I’ve missed out a few, but here’s 11 (in no particular order) that I think everyone should watch. Exactly. I couldn’t even reach a Top 10…
- The Shawshank Redemption – Critically acclaimed movie to start off the list on a high. Great acting, great writing, great cinematography. There literally isn’t a fault with it.
- The Lion King – So what it’s Disney and animated and thus ‘a kid’s film’, but it’s f’n amazing in almost every way. The comic relief characters get to me a bit but everything else makes up for it.
- The Truman Show – One of the first films I remember coming out of the cinema after, thinking “Wow..”. Jim Carrey showed he can actually act and it’s a disgrace he didn’t get the Oscar. Score’s great too.
- Midnight Run – De Niro and ‘the dad from Beethoven’ playing a bounty hunter and his white collar criminal target who have to get from NY to CA before the end of the week, being pursued by the FBI, the mob and another bounty hunter. Perfect buddy action comedy.
- Ghost – Yes, it’s another genre that I, as an adult male, ‘shouldn’t like’, but all-round, it’s a great film that’s stood the test of time.
- Fight Club – Another of those films that just doesn’t have anything wrong with it. Norton, Pitt and Bonham Carter are so perfect that you literally can’t imagine anyone else playing the parts.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Who’da thunk that Carrey would be in two of my favourite films? I don’t even like his typical goofy stuff, but like The Truman Show, this is one of those where he pulls it back and is all the better for it. Kate Winslet, Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry complete the power team.
- Garden State – Braff needs to write more. Nuff sed.
- K-PAX – Jeff Bridges plays a workaholic shrink, distant from his family, landed with a man who claims he’s an alien who teaches him what’s important. The concept speaks for itself, but the writing and acting is pitch-perfect too.
- Hook – Another of those ‘kids’ films’ that aren’t really just for kids. It’s magical yet human – another example of what happens when an actor best-known for comedy pulls out a semi-dramatic turn.
- Knocked Up – It’s ‘just another teen comedy’ to a lot of people, but it’s another film that has just enough actual drama to mean something. Rogen is destined for greatness, so long as he follows in Carrey’s and William’s path with a few dramatic roles in among the comedy. He has the skillz.
Copyright © 2009 Andrew Sparkes