pleasures: guilty and otherwise
Movies that everyone should give a look at --- either just plain great movies, or flicks that please us even though we know they shouldn't.
List activity
173 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
18 titles
- DirectorFrancis VeberStarsGad ElmalehAlice TaglioniDaniel AuteuilA porter and a top-model have to pretend to be a couple in order to salvage a CEO's marriage.one of the funniest movies out of France - a brilliant premise, perfectly cast, with a sly wit.
- DirectorRon UnderwoodStarsKevin BaconFred WardFinn CarterNatives of a small isolated town defend themselves against strange underground creatures which are killing them one by one.Our vote for best chemistry in a movie: Val and Earl (Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward) fit together perfectly. Their banter, insults and asides keep the movie flowing. It's a horror flick. It's a comedy. It's two flicks in one.
- DirectorHugh HudsonStarsBen CrossIan CharlesonNicholas FarrellTwo British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.What about this story of class struggle and sports in the 1920's appeals to us? Don't know, but I know what I like. The music is alright as well.
- DirectorJoe PytkaStarsRichard DreyfussTeri GarrDavid JohansenA nosy cab driver gets a hot tip on a race horse and wins big, but he can't seem to stop gambling. Will he go broke or walk home with a pretty penny?Another guilty pleasure - Richard Dreyfus at his best - David Johanson in a funny spot - Jennifer Tilly in one of filmdom's all-time greatest dresses.
This is a great way to spend an evening. - DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartMary AstorGladys GeorgeSan Francisco private detective Sam Spade takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar and their quest for a priceless statuette, with the stakes rising after his partner is murdered.Bogart at his best. Mary Astor in a career-making role as the femme fatale. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet appear together for the first (but not last) time.
The supporting cast is great, and Boggie cracks wise and does his duty to his shiftless but dead partner. - DirectorMark RobsonStarsPaul NewmanEdward G. RobinsonElke SommerAs the Nobel Prize winners come to Stockholm to receive their awards, their lives are overturned and perturbed in various ways.It could have been a total failure, but Elke Sommer turns this movie into a must-see. Elke is perfect (and perfectly beautiful) as the Swedish foreign office employee whose job it is to keep American literature prize winner, womanizer and boozer, Paul Newman in check during Nobel Prize week in Stockholm.
A Hitchcock-like comedy-thriller from a really bad book. But again, Elke Sommer might just make it all worthwhile. - DirectorRidley ScottStarsRussell CroweAbbie CornishAlbert FinneyA British investment broker inherits his uncle's chateau and vineyard in Provence, where he spent much of his childhood. He discovers a new laid-back lifestyle as he tries to renovate the estate to be sold.Russel Crowe in an unusual comedy turn is just fine. The scenery is beautiful, the story is funny, the actors are pleasant.
It's a nice evening's watch. I love it. - DirectorFranco AmurriStarsDennis HopperKiefer SutherlandCarol KaneAt last the Feds have caught him! Infamous 60's radical Huey Walker is heading for jail. So how come it's Huey's yuptight FBI escort who ends up behind bars?Dennis Hopper has one of his best roles as the ex-hippy leader who has been underground for 20 years. Keifer Sutherland is the young FBI agent who must deliver him to prison.
It starts as a funny buddy comedy and transforms itself into a hauntingly beautiful reflection on what we once were and what we've lost. - DirectorCosta-GavrasStarsYves MontandIrene PapasJean-Louis TrintignantThe public murder of a prominent politician and doctor amid a violent demonstration is covered up by military and government officials. A tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.Costa-Gravas has created a film at least as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.
Replace "Greece" with "America" and see where it takes you. This is the story of a country where the right wing has had it with the left wing and is no longer playing nice. Since all of the powers-that-be are under the right's thumb, anything goes.
It's a powerful, scary movie. - DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsJohn ForsytheShirley MacLaineEdmund GwennHarry's dead and, while no one really minds, everyone feels responsible. After Harry's body is found in the woods, several locals must determine not only how and why he was killed but what to do with the body.Maybe Hitchcock's funniest film - a whimsical look at a body that won't stay buried.
This was Shirley Maclaine's debut and she is great as the eventual sexy widow. - DirectorMartin RittStarsWoody AllenZero MostelHerschel BernardiIn 1953, a cashier poses as a writer for blacklisted talents to submit their work through, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand.Woody Allen stars in this reflection on censorship in the 1950's. It's funny and sad. With a great cast of blacklisted actors including Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi.
- DirectorRobert TowneStarsMariel HemingwayScott GlennPatrice DonnellyThe intertwined lives and loves of three highly ranked athletes striving for the national team; Chris bounces between the beds of male coach Terry and her female friend, competitor, and role model Tory.Mariel Hemmingway showed that Manhattan was no fluke as she takes the role of an athlete with daddy issues who becomes involved in a lesbian relationship with one of her rivals.
Has some of the best competition footage ever filmed. - DirectorArthur HillerStarsJames GarnerJulie AndrewsMelvyn DouglasAn American Naval Officer's talent for living the good life in wartime is challenged when he falls in love and is sent on a dangerous mission.Julie Andrews has her best role opposite wheeler-dealer Navy man James Garner.
This is a movie that talks realistically about war and its consequences on those on the home front in Britain. It's also pretty funny with an excellent cast, including James Coburn and Melvyn Douglas. - DirectorLou AdlerTommy ChongStarsCheech MarinTommy ChongStrother MartinTwo stoners unknowingly smuggle a van - made entirely of marijuana - from Mexico to L.A., with incompetent Sgt. Stedenko on their trail.Stoner comedy where Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong took all the best bits in their stage act and wove it all together into a movie.
It's hilarious from start to finish.
The bad news: once all the best bits were used, Cheech and Chong didn't have much left, but they kept trying to make movies. - DirectorDelbert MannStarsRock HudsonDoris DayTony RandallA series of misunderstandings leaves an advertising executive with a campaign for a product which has not yet been invented, while he romances his rival in the guise of its inventor.The funniest of the fluff comedies put out by Doris Day in the '60s. Rock Hudson is the sleazy ad exec and Day is his pure at heart rival.
Tony Randall is terrific in the best-friend-boss part.
I like a good comedy and this is one. - DirectorElaine MayStarsWalter MatthauElaine MayJack WestonHenry Graham lives the life of a playboy. When his lawyer tells him one day that his lifestyle has consumed all his funds, he needs an idea to avoid climbing down the social ladder. So he intends to marry a rich woman and - murder her.Walter Matthau as the snobby millionaire who suddenly finds himself broke. Elaine May (who also directed) plays the nerdy heiress who Matthau targets to marry his way out of trouble.
Things don't exactly go the way he planned. - DirectorGabriel AxelStarsStéphane AudranBodil KjerBirgitte FederspielDuring the late 19th century, a strict religious community in a Danish village takes in a French refugee from the Franco-Prussian War as a servant to the late pastor's daughters.Remarkable, low-keyed Oscar winner about a highly skilled French chef exiled to remotest Denmark where she makes a living cooking for two old-maids whose father was a religious sect leader. The ladies spend their time administering to the remainder of their father's flock.
Babette wins the lottery and insists on preparing a feast for the ladies and their flock, before the ladies fear, returning to France.
The ladies each have their own background story that is slowly revealed.
It's a beautiful movie that requires patience and attention. Not much to ask. - DirectorStanley DonenStarsCary GrantIngrid BergmanCecil ParkerAn actress who has given up on love meets a suave banker and begins a flirtation with him--although he's already married.Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman play older lovers in this funny and colorful battle of the sexes.
Bergman is a renowned stage actress, Grant a rich diplomat who claims to be married with no chance of divorce.
Cecil Parker as the brother-in-law delivers one of my favorite lines in the movies: "There is no sincerity like a woman telling a lie."