What Movies define you?? (2 Viewers)

Wow, epic thread. Had some thinking to do on this one.

The Big Lebowski
Fight Club
Mallrats
Chasing Amy
Clerks
Office Space
The Hustler
The Color of Money
Rounders
Spaceballs
The Doors
Dazed and Confused
Tombstone

Probably more, but you get the idea.
Awesome movie @buffalojim! Some of the best quotes ever from “Color of Money.” One of my all time favorites.
 
Haha, one of the best for sure! Both that movie and The Hustler are oustanding and don't get the recognition they deserve, IMO. "I'm back!"
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Brazil
Mr. Hulot’s Holiday
Local Hero
Manhattan*
Hannah and Her Sisters
Blade Runner
Dr. Strangelove
Apocalypse Now
Swimming to Cambodia
Chinatown
My Dinner With André
Down By Law
Slacker
Dead Man
The Long Goodbye
North by Northwest
Beat the Devil
Grosse Point Blank



* HAS NOT AGED WELL

On the lighter side… All the Marx Brothers, Pink Panther and Monty Python comedies. Star Wars of course.
 
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I love Clerks, but I must have watched Mallrats 100 times in college.

I wouldn't say these movies "define" me, but there are only two movies that I finished, then immediately rewound (lol) and watched again:

- American History X
- The Big Lebowski
We can be friends then lol

American History X is outstanding. Back in the day Norton couldn't be beat IMO. Like 4 of his movies are some of my favorites ever.
 
20 years ago, fresh in the business, I was asked, in Greek, by some ridiculous Director if I could recite something from the Bible.
It came up automatically, so I replied in English, and forgive me for any mistakes, 20+ years after:
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish, and the tyranny of evil men.
Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness;
for he is truly his brother's keeper, and a finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee, with great vengeance and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers,
and you will know my name is the LAWD,
when I lay my vengeance upon thee"
:)
 
20 years ago, fresh in the business, I was asked, in Greek, by some ridiculous Director if I could recite something from the Bible.
It came up automatically, so I replied in English, and forgive me for any mistakes, 20+ years after:
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish, and the tyranny of evil men.
Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness;
for he is truly his brother's keeper, and a finder of lost children.
And I will strike down upon thee, with great vengeance and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers,
and you will know my name is the LAWD,
when I lay my vengeance upon thee"
:)
 
We can be friends then lol

American History X is outstanding. Back in the day Norton couldn't be beat IMO. Like 4 of his movies are some of my favorites ever.

So good. It absolutely blew me away the first time I watched it. Oh yeah add Dazed and Confused to that list too, though technically I watched that one the next morning.
 
"The time of the Gypsies" by Emir Kusturica and "Nove Cento" by Bernardo Bertolucci are important.
So are "Once Upon a Time in America" by Sergio Leone, and all films by Stanley Kubrick (including The Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket).
 
For important Greek films, other than pathetic Greek Bollywood of the 60s or communist crap of the 70s, PM me.
 
OK, this is supposed to be about mainstream films, but let's have some laughs with genuinely surreal Greek '70s pr0n.
The big hero was Kostas Gousgounis, known for his huge penis,
pictured here as a happy old man in his 80s
kostas_gouskgounis.jpg


He was famous for his frugal and minimal film scripts, leading to intercourse in less than 30 seconds:

Version A:
Kostas, as a fisherman, rings the door bell of a housewife.
Housewife comes out in lingerie.
Kostas:"Good morning, this is your fish"
Housewife: "But I haven't ordered any fish"
Kostas: "So, you want me to f*ck you"

Version B:
Lady brings coffee to Kostas, sitting by the fireplace. Kostas tastes the coffee and declares:
"Nice coffee, I 'm going to f*ck you"

Version C:
Kostas climbs up a mountain top, only to find out that three naked girls are sunbathing on the beach, at the bottom of the mountain's vertical cliff toward the sea. With clear danger to his own life, he climbs down the cliff and says:
-Kostas: "Girls, what are you doing here?"
-Girls: "Nothing really, just sitting here and waiting for someone to f*ck us"
-Kostas: "Thank God I was passing through"

Version D:
Kostas, as a plumber, asks the housewife:
-Kostas: "Would you like an orange?"
-Housewife: "NO"
-Kostas: Would you like me to f*ck you?"
-Housewife: "I guess that would be no problem"
 
I've never been a big movie-goer, but in roughly chronological order, my top ten, the movies that have stayed with me:

- The Greatest Show on Earth (1952/3 -- first movie my buddies and I were ever allowed to go see on our own)
- Forbidden Planet
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Platoon (took me a few years to go see it)
- Holy Grail (favorite movie ever)
- Out of Africa
- Being There
- Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society, and The Fisher King -- the Robin Williams trilogy
- The Princess Bride
- Clockwise
- The Big Lebowski
- Sliding Doors
- The Hairdresser's Husband

(An interesting related topic might be the songs that have defined periods of your life. For example, at my age, I just can't listen to Jason Isbell's "If We Were Vampires" without serious emotional involvement.)
 
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Not sure whether anyone has said this one yet, but for me, it's got to be Rounders.

rounders-fuckyou.gif


I can't think of another film that has single-handedly had so much influence on my life through university onwards.

The experiences I've had and friends I've made through poker, I wouldn't change for the world — none of which would have been possible were it not for this cult masterpiece.
 
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Not sure whether anyone has said this one yet, but for me, it's got to be Rounders.

View attachment 862482

I can't think of another film that has single-handedly had so much influence on my life through from university onwards.

The experiences I've had and friends I've made through poker, I wouldn't change for the world — none of which would have been possible was it not for this cult masterpiece.
What Rounders did to poker is exactly what The Color of Money did to pool and billiards. I'd say the Moneymaker world series had more of an impact actually but it was essentially the same. Amazing what great movie can do to influence people interest.
 
This is such a great thread. Here are the movies that I relate(d) to personally and can look back as a reminder of who I once was (or what I was dealing with at the time).

In no particular order:

- Goonies
- Breakfast Club
- Akira
- Cinema Paradiso
- Abyss
- National Lampoon's Vacation
- Trainspotting
- Fight Club
- The Beach
- Central Station
- The Way Home (Korean)
- Little Miss Sunshine
- High Fidelity (although I really resonated with the book more than the movie)
- Better Off Dead
- Mallrats
- Coco
- Almost Famous

I'm sure I'm missing others but these jumped out at me.
 
There is the scene in Rounders where they are playing at the Taj and they go through a series of fish that come to the table and quickly bust.

The first time I played poker at a casino was at the Taj. I was sitting in seat 9 and seats 5 and 6 went through a stream of players just like the movie. I hadn't seen Rounders at the time. When I first saw it later, I had a major flash back.
 
American History X is outstanding.

American History X has been my “favorite” movie since the first time I watched it (by a mile) and I doubt it will ever be knocked from the top spot. I don’t know what that says about me. But damn, what an incredibly well done, impactful movie.

It really is the only movie that has ever REALLY moved me. Given the thread title, I hope that this movie does not “define me”. But I guess in a way, it must. Because it speaks to me like no other.

It’s been a few years since I have seen it. Might be time to queue it up again.
 
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I just watched “O Brother Where Are Thou” again, it’s got to be one of the funniest movies ever made! I immediately learned to play the main song “I am a man of constant sorrow” on guitar.

The Coen Brothers define me. As far as directors go, they are my favorite. Also a huge fan of Tarantino, Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola.
 
Don’t know about defining me, but there are some movies that I can just watch over and over. No particular order and there are probably more:

Interstellar
American history X
Forrest Gump
Pulp fiction
Intouchables
The prestige
Good Will Hunting
Breakfast club
No country for old men
Cinema paradiso

And the slightly guilty pleasure ones:

Notting hill
Jerry maguire
Love actually
 
American History X has been my “favorite” movie since the first time I watched it (by a mile) and I doubt it will ever be knocked from the top spot. I don’t know what that says about me. But damn, what an incredibly well done, impactful movie.

It really is the only movie that has ever REALLY moved me. Given the thread title, I hope that this movie does not “define me”. But I guess in a way, it must. Because it speaks to me like no other.

It’s been a few years since I have seen it. Might be time to queue it up again.
It might not define you but it does mean you have good taste. It's still a relevant movie, probably always will be. The subject matter is dark. It's one of the only movies that has a scene in it which has been seared into my brain forever, you know the one. I think when a movie can do that, it's a powerful movie.

Another favorite of mine which I forgot to add to my list, which also has parallels with American History X is The 25th Hour. I think that's also a spectacular movie, no special effects, just dialogue and tough subject matter, and Norton does those movies so well.
 

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